


Crucio

by Zakaira



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Other, Trans Pregnancy, male to female trans Draco Malfoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:21:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22374841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zakaira/pseuds/Zakaira
Summary: Draco reacts badly to his first Crucio. Harry sees and his saving people thing kicks in.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 10
Kudos: 78





	Crucio

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot.

Harry’s POV:

I hadn’t even made it onto the train back to Little Whinging after fifth year when it happened. I was still inside King’s Cross Station, siting silently in a seat next to my uncle as we waited for our train to arrive. It was running late, so my uncle was cross and the platform was crowded. It was so crowded that my giant school trunk with my owl cage on top, complete with Hedwig inside, was getting dirty looks from the many Muggles who were inconvenienced by the space they took up. 

I felt my scar burning and then I was sucked into His head, transported instantly to a giant fancy room with polished stone floors, with Death Eaters gathered in a semi-circle around me, as I stood with my wand out at the center of the spectacle. At the forefront of the gathering were Draco and Narcissa Malfoy in supplicant positions, on bended knee. My bony white hand extended, gripping Voldemort’s wand, and said, “Draco, you must pay for your father’s mistakes. Let this be a lesson to those who fail me. Crucio!”

Draco Malfoy and his mother must have already made it home, using magic. Maybe she had side-along apparated him directly off of Platform 9 and 3/4, or maybe they had found a nearby floo. However they had done it, they’d gotten home to Wiltshire before my uncle and I had even boarded our connecting train. Home, where a madman was waiting for them and was already torturing them with an Unforgivable. They would’ve been better off taking Muggle transportation home and being stuck waiting for a train like me.

The torture curse hit Draco Malfoy in the shoulder and sent him flying back so that he was splayed out on the ground. I expected to hear him screaming in pain and I did hear screams, but not from him.

“Draco! No! Not my son!” Narcissa screamed.

“Noooooo! Draco! Nooooo!” I screamed in a high-pitched voice that was not my own.

Whatever sounds Draco made, could not be heard above the noise his mother and I made, but his reaction could be seen quite clearly. He vomited almost immediately and began shaking violently. I’ve been Crucioed before. I’ve seen other people Crucioed in front of me before. I knew that there was normally some uncontrollable limb movements, but not like this. He was shaking jerkily in a way I’d only seen on Muggle television, right before the patient is rushed off to hospital. This was serious and to prove my worst fears correct, he started turning blue.

“No! You won’t take him from me! Save him, Narcissa! Take him to St. Mungo’s! Narcissa Malfoy, go! Now!!!” I screamed, in the voice that was not my own, forcing the hand that was not my own to break the spell, though it resisted me.

Narcissa looked up at me with her tear-streaked face, gave a slight nod, grabbed Draco’s hand, and then they were gone.

I felt a rage so uncontrollable that it forced me back, trying to break my control of the pale body in the flowing black robes. A scream of rage left our throat, our pale boney hands grasped our bald head, and my own rage pushed back. This man had taken my parents from me before I could even remember. This man had killed a classmate of mine, for simply being with me. This man had tricked me and now my godfather was dead. I was alone in this world, because of this psychopathic asshole and now he might’ve taken Draco Malfoy from me too. This Malfoy was mine and I was furious. I used every last bit of my will power to regain control of the other body, forcing Him into a small corner at the back of His own mind.

Then I looked up at the Death Eaters still gathered around me and announced, “I will kill each and every one of you for this. Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Nott, Lestrange, Macnair, Flint, Pettigrew, Carrow, and Carrow; the lot of you have failed me! Go! Leave now and never come back, because the next time I see you, I will _not_ be merciful! Go!” As I named off the Death Eaters, I realized that I knew all of these faces already and that there were three faces missing: Lucius Malfoy, Rabastan Lestrange, and Rodolphus Lestrange. Lucius was in Azkaban, but I didn’t know where the other two Lestranges were.

The Death Eaters ran, all but Bellatrix Lestrange, who threw herself down at my feet and begged.

“My Lord! Please!” Bellatrix pleaded.

“Bella, my dear Bella, you have failed me most of all. Crucio!” I called out, meaning it more than I have ever meant it before. This woman killed my godfather, Sirius Black and I wanted her to pay for it.

I thought it was working. I thought Voldemort’s magic was under my control and that his sick, twisted mind was just as eager to see someone squirm under the torture curse as I was, even if it was his most loyal supporter. But then an image came to the forefront of that depraved brain, an image of sex and then another of Bellatrix saying two words, announcing her pregnancy with His child. My concentration broke in my horror that there would soon be another Riddle in this world. I was thrown out of His head and back into my own, forced completely out.

Then I was back in King’s Cross station, bound tightly to a Muggle gurney, Muggle emergency workers pushing me out the front door, where an ambulance was waiting. I gasped for breath as I was loaded into the vehicle. I thought they would close the doors any second now and rush off with their sirens blaring, but instead a paramedic began checking me over right there. My eyelids were pulled back as a bright light was shined in my face, blinding me. Then there were fingers at my wrist, checking my pulse.

“Alright there?” the paramedic asked me.

I tried to nod, but my head was restrained. So instead, I forced out the word, “Yes,” even though my chest was still heaving from the adrenalin.

“Has this ever happened to you before?” the medic asked me.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Do you have epilepsy?”

I felt my forehead scrunch up in confusion. I wasn’t entirely sure what epilepsy was, although I was fairly sure I didn’t have it. I had possessed the most evil wizard of my time, but Muggles didn’t believe in possession. They wouldn’t take that as a viable account of what had happened. It might be better to pretend to have epilepsy. But how do I pretend to have something that I don’t even know what it is?

“Ah, here they are. Don’t worry, your father is coming now. Is that a pet owl?” the medic asked, looking out the back of the ambulance.

I looked too and sure enough, there was Uncle Vernon, escorted by an emergency worker, who was pulling my trunk, Hedwig still in her cage on top.

“Hedwig,” I muttered, glad she was alright.

Uncle Vernon was red in the face as he boarded the ambulance. “Possessed! The boy’s possessed! I swear it! Demons inside this one, I tell you!” he shouted, pointing an accusing finger at me.

“Now, now, calm down. Have a seat back there. No one is possessed. Your son just has a medical condition. It’s most likely epilepsy. We’ll take him to hospital and get him on the proper medication and this will stop happening,” the medic said, pointing to an uncomfortable looking seat along the wall of the ambulance.

Uncle Vernon sat, his large body overflowing the seat and spilling onto the adjacent seat, as two emergency workers loaded my trunk and owl onto the ambulance next to me.

“He’s not my son! He’s my nephew!” Uncle Vernon shouted as the doors were finally closed and then we were moving.

“Well then, your nephew is going to be fine, sir. That must have been some shock for you. Would you mind if I check your vitals to make sure you are okay?” the paramedic asked, stepping towards my uncle.

“I’m not possessed! It doesn’t run in my family! My boy is normal! It’s just him! My wife’s sister was the abnormal sort, like the boy! I tried to bring him up right, but it just takes over him!” Uncle Vernon exclaimed.

“It’s alright, sir. Epilepsy does run in families. There’s nothing you could have done to give it to him or to prevent him from developing it. He just needs medication to manage it. I’m sure you’ve done a fine job raising him,” the paramedic said.

I snorted. Uncle Vernon couldn’t do a find job raising a flobberworm.

Cajoled, my uncle then agreed to a short examination, where it was revealed that his blood pressure was through the roof. By the time we arrived at the closest London hospital, my uncle was the primary patient of concern and was rushed off for immediate treatment.

“Don’t worry; your uncle is going to be okay. They’ll get his blood pressure under control before he has a heart attack. We’ve caught it in time. And you’ll just need to stay until you get a proper diagnosis and stabilize on your new medication. They’ll take good care of you here,” the paramedic said as I was unloaded.

“What about Hedwig? My owl?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, but owls are not allowed inside. I’ve already called animal control to fetch the bird,” a clipboard wielding woman in a hospital uniform answered.

“No! Just open her cage and let her go. She’ll fly home on her own,” I insisted.

There was a bit of dithering on the part of the hospital staff, but then one of the emergency workers did as I asked. Hedwig leapt out of her cage onto my gurney and pecked at the straps still holding me down.

“I know, girl. Just go to The Burrow. Go to Ron. The Weasleys will take care of you and I’ll fetch you as soon as I get out of here,” I told her.

She gave a hoot and took off.

Then I was rushed in the opposite direction as my uncle had been taken, as the hospital staff commented on what an unusual pet I had.

No sooner had I been released from my bindings and asked to transfer over to a hospital bed, than a witch came bustling in, pulling my trunk with the empty owl cage. She was wearing Muggle clothing, but I spotted the wand poking out of her sleeve.

“Harry Potter! I’ve just got your paperwork. You’re to be transferred to St. Mungo’s,” she announced.

“Great! That’s where Malfoy is!” I replied, thinking this was working out better than I thought it could.

“Malfoy? Which Malfoy? Lucius Malfoy is in prison, dear. You don’t need to worry about him,” the witch said reassuringly.

“No, Draco Malfoy. Voldemort was going to kill him, so I told his mum to take him to Mungo’s,” I said.

The witch turned pale and quiet and spoke only minimal words as I was then transferred to a wheelchair and wheeled back out to the ambulance bay, where a wizarding ambulance was waiting for me. It drove only a few blocks and then I was at St. Mungo’s, being unloaded at the back entrance.

“Can you walk?” a wizard asked me.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. I almost told him that I was fine and didn’t need to be checked out or anything, but then I worried that if I did that, I might be sent along to Little Whinging without my uncle, or worse, sent back to the Muggle hospital to wait for him to be released. I didn’t want to face him or my aunt. I wanted to see Malfoy.

“I’ll get your trunk,” he said, before directing me through the hospital, to an examination room.

I was left in the room with my trunk for long enough that I was about to leave in my quest to find Malfoy. In those few long minutes I really wished a had a map of the hospital like my map of the school. But then a healer came in and fussed over me and I had to explain that I was fine; I had just been possessing a dark wizard that the wizarding world had only recently decided to believe me was back. The healer gave me a look of disbelief, and asked, “You are close friends with the Malfoy boy, then?”

“Err, not exactly,” I muttered, looking down at my shoes. “We sort of don’t get along…”

“You don’t get along, but you saved him by possessing the most powerful wizard in the world?” she asked.

“Yeah, but what else could I do!?! He was dying and I wasn’t there!” I blurted out.

“Alright. I’ll go check if the Malfoys have been admitted,” she replied, before exiting the room.

I followed her to the door and watched as she went over to the reception desk to ask about the Malfoys. I saw the receptionist nod and say something back. Then something was written on a scrap of parchment and passed over to my healer. My healer said something back and the receptionist rushed over to a nearby fireplace, while my healer took two steps back towards the room where I was still waiting at the door.

“You were right. The Malfoys are over in Spell Damage. Come along and I’ll take you to see them,” she said, motioning me towards the corridor.

When I reached her, she handed me the scrap of parchment, which had a room number written on it, underneath the words Spell Damage. She took off and I followed. The healer led me through a corridor, to the elevator, and up to the Spell Damage ward. She paused to knock on a door that was cracked open, before opening it fully to reveal the Malfoys. Narcissa had her arms around Draco, who had been leaning his head on his mother’s shoulder, but the two separated at the intrusion.

Seeing them made it all rush back to me: what I’d done to her son. I was _so_ unbearably relieved that Draco wasn’t dead.

I ran into the room and asked, “How is he? He’s going to be alright, isn’t he?” motioning towards Draco. 

“Mr. Potter?” Narcissa asked, taken aback. She looked awful, tear streaks running down her pallid face. 

“Yes. I’m so sorry. So, sooo, sorry. I tried to stop it,” I pleaded.

“It was you?” she asked and paused in thought for a moment, before adding, “That explains it.” Then she turned to Draco. “You were right after all: it was Potter.”

Draco nodded, a smug smirk on his face, as if to tell his mother, “I told you so.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt him, you have to believe me! But I didn’t have control and it took me forever to fight him for it!” I exclaimed.

“You possessed the Dark Lord, in order to save Draco,” Narcissa said.

I nodded. “I’m so sorry it took me so long. Please, I need to know, how is he?”

“He can’t talk. It’s too soon to tell if the damage is permanent,” she answered, sounding a bit hollow.

“What damage? He was choking, wasn’t he? And why was he shaking like that?” I pressed.

She nodded. “Yes, he was choking on his own tongue. He had a seizure. Then he past out. They revived him when we got here.”

“Seizures! That was the shaking!” I exclaimed. That’s what I’d seen on Muggle television.

She nodded. “He’s going to be okay. He has to have daily treatment here until they figure out why he can’t talk and if it’s reversible.”

“Loss of the ability to speak is a common side effect of over-exposure to the Cruciatus Curse. In most people though, the damage doesn’t stop there. You are lucky he hasn’t lost his mind,” my healer said.

“But it was only for half a minute and it was his first exposure,” Narcissa replied.

“His tolerance must just be lower than usual. Another half a minute and he’ll be gone,” my healer warned, before asking Narcissa, “Can I speak with you outside?”

“Draco, will you be alright here with Mr. Potter?” Narcissa asked, looking intensely at her son.

Draco nodded and gave his mother a little wave, a bit of a smirk still in place on a hopeful looking face.

Narcissa and my healer left, leaving me and Draco Malfoy alone.

Malfoy jumped up and shut the door after them. Then he approached me, his smirk growing more pronounced.

“Are you really alright? You don’t blame me, for being too slow, do you?” I asked as he closed the distance between us.

He shook his head and then kissed me. Draco Malfoy kissed me! On the lips! He closed his eyes, leaned in to me, and almost melted into my arms. Then it was over and he straightened back up. I was too shocked to kiss him back, but I did enjoy it. It was infinitely better than my last kiss with Cho Chang.

“Guess you really are in there, then?” I asked, wondering if kissing me could be a sign of insanity.

He nodded, then raised an eyebrow at me, probably realizing that I was still confused about the kiss. He took a step back and then went over to the table beside his hospital bed, where he picked up a tablet of drawing paper.

I took two steps towards him to get a better look at the tablet and asked, “What is it?”

He showed me: There was a little blond cartoon figure lying down with x’s for eyes and his tongue hanging out. Above him was a cartoon Voldemort, bald with no nose and wand trained on the blond. And above Voldemort’s head, fluttering on feathery wings, was a green eyed angel with black hair and a lightening bolt scar on it’s forehead, just under the halo. I watched as the angel moved to block Voldemort.

“This is what happened, yeah?” I asked, taking the tablet with the cartoon drawing into my hands. He nodded.

“I saved you?” I asked, looking him in the eye.

He looked me back in my eyes and stepped closer to me, taking his tablet back, and then leaning in and kissing me again.

I returned it this time. It was my third kiss and pretty brilliant. He closed his eyes, so I closed my eyes too, all my concentration going to the pleasant feelings coming from his lips pressing against mine, as his lips and tongue moved across mine. He kissed with passion and a sense of urgency that was contagious, like he wanted me. My pulse started beating so hard that I could feel it in my lips and in my ears, my heart thudding in my chest, my lungs struggling to take in enough air through my nose. After a few minutes, I had to break away to catch my breath, my lungs burning.

Malfoy opened his eyes and they appeared black, his pupils blown wide with lust, only a sliver of gray around the boarder and his cheeks, ears, and even his neck were tinged pink with a blush. He backed me up to his bed, and then pushed me, repeatedly, until I sat down and scooted back against the headboard. Then he straddled me and kissed me again. We made out, his trembling body pressed against me. I was more turned on than I’ve ever been in my life. And again, I had to break away to catch my breath. While I did so, he picked up his pad and a pencil, flipped to a new page, and made a quick sketch. I looked over his shoulder at a black haired figure who draped a cloak around its shoulders, before disappearing.

“An invisibility cloak?” I asked. He nodded and motioned towards my pocket; the one with the undetectable extension charm that I always stored my cloak in. I still had it in there from the train. “You want to see my invisibility cloak?”

He nodded eagerly.

“Okay,” I said, pulling it out.

He picked it up, standing up, and draped it over his shoulders, turning them invisible, but held the front open. He motioned for me to join him. When I did, pressing my body tight to him, he pulled the cloak closed around me. Then he pulled the hood over our heads, but he was too tall, so our feet were still visible.

“You have to crouch down a bit,” I said, pulling on the fabric of his white hospital gown.

He crouched and our feet disappeared. Then he started to move, taking small shuffling steps, because my closeness impeded his movement. I followed, inching towards the door. We slowly made our way out into the hall, where we observed his mother speaking to Headmaster Dumbledore. As we walked closer to the pair, I thought our purpose was to eavesdrop, but then Draco led us away from them, down a side hall. And I couldn’t even get a bit of what the adults said, because all I could hear at our nearest approach to them was the buzzing of a Muffliato.

When we were just out of sight of everyone, Draco opened a door and we went inside. The shelves were lined in row after row of racks filled with potion vials, like Pomfrey’s medicinal potions cupboard. Draco let my cloak fall to the floor and went to a section marked with a large capital S and began looking through them. After about two minutes, he threw up his hands in frustration, before pulling his tablet and pencil from the pocket of his hospital gown. He then knelt down on the floor and began to draw big block letters. He wasn’t writing them. He was making lines and then shading in what looked like the top half of the letters S, O, and what was either an R, P, or B.

I didn’t wait for him to finish his drawing. I went to the shelf and looked for potions that started with the letters S and then O. There were only three. I pulled them down and put them in front of him on the floor.

Draco plucked out a vial from the first rack of potions, shook his head, and put it back. He did the same with a vial from the second rack. But when he pulled out a vial from the third rack, he nodded and smiled. Then he motioned to the shelves full of racks of potions.

I took the hint and pulled down another rack of the third type of potion. “You want more than one rack?” I asked.

He took it from me and nodded, before motioning for a third, and once that was in hand, a fourth rack. He set them all on the floor, before pulling a coin purse from his pocket. He opened it, showing me a pile of gleaming Galleons. He pointed back and fourth between the potions and his pouch, and then shrugged. When I didn’t catch on, he repeated the motions twice more.

“You want to pay for them?” I asked.

He nodded and held up a rack, pointing to a label with a price. It was expensive.

“20 Galleons for a set of 4 racks,” I read. They were marked to be sold in sets of 4 racks.

He nodded and handed me the coin purse.

I counted out 20 Galleons into his empty hand. When I finished, he left the pile of coins on the empty bit of shelf in the S section, where I’d gotten the potions from. Then he grabbed up two racks of potions and motioned towards the remaining two racks with his pointy chin. I picked them up. He jostled the potion racks in his arms to get to my cloak, which we had left lying on the floor. I caught on and began to help him.

Soon we were invisible once more and shuffling back into his room with the potions. Malfoy threw off my cloak and set the two racks of potions he’d been carrying down on a counter in his room. He then retrieved a woman’s purse, possibly his mother’s, from beside the bed. He opened the purse and carefully inserted the first two racks of potions. I handed him one of the racks that were still in my hands, which he quickly added to the bag. Finally, I handed over the last rack, which he removed a single vial from, before adding to the purse.

Malfoy took his single vial of potion to the bed, sitting back against the headboard as he uncorked it.

“Will it make you able to speak again?” I asked as I watched him swallow the thick purple liquid. That was the point of our little adventure, wasn’t it? At least that’s what I’d thought and why I’d gone along so easily.

He shook his head as he cast the empty vial aside.

“What then?” I asked.

By way of answering, he pulled his hospital gown up and off over his head. He was naked underneath. Completely naked and aroused.

I stared at him slack jawed as my eyes lowered to his crotch. His erect penis was small and shrinking smaller as I watched. His bollocks were shrinking too, his testes regressing back into his body. Suddenly, just as it looked liked his genitalia had completely disappeared, his blond pubic hair fell out, revealing much more feminine looking hairless genitalia. He brushed the hair away and shifted over to get away from the curly blond strands.

“What did you do?” I asked, bewildered at the sight. “Did that Crucio scramble your brain after all?”

He shook his head and began to touch himself, appearing to inspect his new organs. He pulled the hood of his clit back, revealing a fat dark red clit. It looked like a miniature cock head in shape, but it had no opening. Then his fingers trailed lower, to his labia. He pulled apart the outer lips to reveal shiny red puckered inner lips. As his finger pulled away from his opening, a bit of something clung to the digit. It looked and acted like clear mucus, stretching between his finger and his lips, before breaking. He was wet.

“You wanted to turn yourself into a girl?” I asked. As I spoke, I attempted to raise my eyes to his face, but got stuck on his breasts, which were still growing. As I watched, they went from barely there, to A-cups.

He nodded, which I only made out, because his pointed chin dipped down into my field of vision with the gesture. My field of vision being my first real look at a pair of breasts, nipples hardened.

He motioned me closer. This was the closest I’d ever been to a naked female before and I wasn’t thinking clearly as I climbed onto the bed with him. He pulled my right hand closer to his body, and I let him lead me, shuffling forward until he was right in front of me. Then he switched positions with me and I sat back against the headboard.

Then he was in my lap, grinding his feminine bare crotch against my cloth covered crotch and snogging me like his life depended on it. I was so turned on that my cock somehow managed to worm it’s way through the slit in my Y-fronts and press painfully against the zip of my trousers. A feeling of relief washed over me as he reached down and unzipped me, releasing my cock.

Next thing I knew, a tight wet heat was engulfing my shaft, as Draco Malfoy lowered his new pussy down onto me. He let out a shaky breath followed by sounds that I thought might be grunts of pain. He moved slowly, rising up a little and then back down, several times, before I lost it and shot my load inside him.

A flash of anger and irritation crossed his face, before he schooled his featured and pulled away from me.

He redressed quickly in the loose hospital gown and then found a towel to wipe himself with, reaching under the gown to do so. He threw a second towel to me and I wiped myself off, before tucking my cock away. Then I looked down at the cloth in my hands: it was pink with blood. I looked over to him, to discover him sat on the chair his mother had vacated, digging through her purse. Then I noticed it: a streak of bright red on the cloth he’d abandoned on the counter.

I got up, fetched the cloth, and confronted him with the evidence on both cloths. “You’re bleeding.”

He shrugged, pulling a bottle of perfume out of the purse and spraying himself with it, to cover up any lingering smell of our activities.

“We need to get a healer in here!” I exclaimed.

He rolled his eyes at me. Then returned the perfume and pulled his wand out of his mothers purse and made the movements of a vanishing charm.

“You want me to vanish the washcloths?” I asked and he nodded. “No! You need to get checked out!”

He rolled his eyes again. Then he tried the vanishing spell himself, but it didn’t take, because he couldn’t talk. He couldn’t do magic at all. He was a sitting duck without his magic.

He tried again to mime to me that I should do the spell and when I refused again, he snatched up both cloths and stuffed them in his mother’s purse. Then he put his wand up the sleeve of his hospital gown, walked to the door, and gave me a little wave as he left, his mother’s purse slung over his shoulder.

I followed him out, asking, “Where are you going?”

His mother and Dumbledore were no longer in the corridor. He went peaking into various doors, before he found one he liked, and entered.

Several steps behind him, I followed him into the room to find Professor Dumbledore sat across from Narcissa Malfoy, having tea. Draco was in the process of receiving a kiss from his mother at the same time he handed the purse over.

“Draco! Harry, my boy, good to see you. Close the door behind you, would you?” Dumbledore asked me.

I closed the door, as Draco started helping himself to tea and a little square of lemon tart.

Dumbledore then recast his silencing charms, to include me and Draco, before announcing, “Narcissa Malfoy has agreed that the only thing for it is for her and Draco to switch sides. What do you think of that, Draco?”

Draco shrugged, before nodding curtly.

“Excellent, my boy! Now, we’ve just been discussing options for the two of you to go into hiding this summer. You will, of course, be welcome back at school in September, Draco, and I guarantee you that you will be perfectly safe. But until then, you need somewhere to go,” Dumbledore said.

“Draco, darling, none of our family properties will be safe from my sister and your father’s friends. They have all been compromised by one person or another. I’ve asked Dumbledore here to find somewhere to put us until one of our properties can be secured,” Narcissa said.

“Which is why I am glad you are here, Harry,” Dumbledore added.

“You are?” I asked, fearing he was about to suggest some nonsense about taking the Malfoys with me to the Dursleys house on Privet Drive.

“Yes. You see, Sirius left you the Black family home, as I informed you just yesterday. There was some uncertainty regarding whether or not Narcissa and her sisters would be able to access the property now, which is why I decided to relocate the Head Quarters. But Narcissa here was able to clear that confusion up: she and her sister have both tried to locate their late aunt’s home and were unable to find it. What’s more is that neither of them seems to have gained any of the rights that come with being the head of the Black family, which means that Sirius’ will was indeed binding and you, my boy, are the only true heir,” Dumbledore explained.

“Oh, good,” I replied.

Draco reached over and flicked my ear. When I looked his way, he stuck out his tongue.

“Ah, I know, dear Draco. You were in line as heir, through your mother. Second in line for a while. But then Sirius made his will listing Harry as his heir and Bellatrix escaped from Azkaban, making you fourth in line. You are now third in line, after Harry, until he has children of his own or writes a will leaving the house to someone else. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, the house is free and already set up as a safe house. Harry could let you and your mother stay for the summer,” Dumbledore said.

“Sir, do you think that is wise? What if we need the house for Headquarters again?” I asked, even though part of me wanted to just give the house to Draco, after everything that had happened today, especially after the sex and him bleeding from it.

“Harry, there is something that we _absolutely must_ obtain and destroy in order to defeat Tom Riddle. Narcissa Malfoy has just told me what it is, where it is, and what protections are guarding it,” Dumbledore replied. “That information is more valuable than almost anything. It will only be for the summer and I can recast the Fidelius charm for you when Narcissa moves out.”

I looked then to Narcissa for conformation that she was on our side now. Had she really told Dumbledore all that that quickly? Was that what they were doing while Draco and I were together?

“My sister bragged. Our Lord trusted her with the information long ago. Then he made the mistake of almost murdering my only son today. I will tell you every little thing my sister and husband have ever told me, if it means protecting Draco,” Narcissa explained.

“Alright. They can use the house,” I conceded.

“Great. Then that’s settled. Draco here can be released tonight and come back daily for his treatments throughout the summer. I will personally look into which of the Malfoy properties will make the best safe house. That only leaves the matter of your uncle, Harry,” Dumbledore stated.

“I know. I have to go back with the Dursleys to Little Whinging,” I said morosely.

“Yes, but what I meant to tell you is that your uncle is currently in surgery at the Muggle hospital across town. He is having an emergency heart bypass. They were afraid he was moments away from having a heart attack. You may just have saved his life today, by getting him to hospital with you when you did. Your aunt and cousin are on their way to London as we speak. I have arranged for you to stay with the Weasleys for one week while your uncle recovers. But then, I really must insist that you go back to them until your birthday.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. Everything was suddenly looking up. Way up.

“Well, if that’s settled, then let me see you off to the floo, before returning to this room to escort Draco and Narcissa to their new home for the summer,” Dumbledore said.

“Great. Only, I left my trunk in an examination room on some other floor,” I said.

“I already had it sent along to the Burrow. Come along, Harry,” Dumbledore replied, standing up.

I moved to the door, and took one more look at Draco, wondering if perhaps I ought to stop everything in order to tell someone about the bleeding.

Draco smiled and waved at me. Narcissa too wore a slight smile on her face, as she said, “Thank you for this, Mr. Potter.”

“Come along, Harry, my boy!” Dumbledore called from the hallway.

I waved to the Malfoys, thinking Draco must be fine if there was no sign of blood on his white hospital robes, and followed after Dumbledore.

Dumbledore walked me through the hospital to the bank of public floos, where I flooed to The Burrow.

The Weasleys were waiting for me there: Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Molly, and Arthur. I was greeted by a round of hugs and then ordered into the kitchen for dinner. Apparently, they had all been waiting, after Dumbledore had fire-called saying to expect me tonight. They had a million questions for me about what had happened and I told them, leaving out the details of the time I’d spent with Draco Malfoy. The news that Bellatrix Lestrange was pregnant by Voldemort was taken with dismay and disgust.

“So you get your own house and the first thing you do is give it away to the richest people we know?” Ron asked, waving a chicken drumstick in the air for emphasis.

“Just for the summer. It’s not permanent,” I replied. “But what I want to know is if Draco’s not talking thing is going to be permanent?” I asked, looking to the Weasley parents, to see if either of them knew.

“Well, Harry, we don’t have all the information. Do you know if he was able to communicate at all? Poor Alice and Frank Longbottom couldn’t communicate at all when they woke up and they aren’t much better now,” Molly replied.

“Yes, he was communicating a lot, but it was all gestures and facial expressions and drawings,” I answered.

“Could he write?” Molly asked. “That’s one of the critical indicators of a full recovery.”

“No, only draw. There was a point when he wanted a potion off a shelf, but couldn’t read the labels, so he began to draw a picture of the words,” I explained.

“That’s not good. It’s too early to be sure and I haven’t examined him, of course, but not being able to read is an even worse sign than not being able to write. If he’s lucky, he will regain all three abilities, but I fear he may only regain the ability to read or nothing at all,” Molly answered.

“On the bright side, if Malfoy can’t talk, he can’t insult us anymore,” Ron said happily.

“Ronald!” Molly exclaimed. “You should be ashamed of yourself! That boy almost died today in his own home!”

“Sorry mum. But it was only thirty seconds,” Ron replied.

“What does it matter how quick it was? Dead is dead,” Arthur said sternly.

“Well Harry’s taken the Cruciatus curse loads of times and he’s not a vegetable,” Ron retorted.

“Are you sure, Ronnikins? He looks a bit like a parsnip, if I squint just right,” Fred said, squinting with his head cocked to the side.

“No, he’s more of a turnip, with those glasses of his,” George said, squinting and tilting his head the other way.

“I want to hear more about the fight with Voldemort! You battled for control of his head and you won!?!” Ginny asked, changing the subject.

Fred and George seconded their sister’s enthusiasm.

“Well yeah, he was murdering Malfoy! I had to! I was just so pissed about Sirius still that I couldn’t let him take one more,” I insisted.

Everyone was in awe at that. I didn’t like how they were fawning over me and I’d already finished eating, so I asked if it would be alright if I took the first bath. They agreed and continued to chat about my awesome defeat of Voldemort without me.

I had half an hour of wonderful peace while I washed and I used that time to process my thoughts. Draco had almost died today and I still felt guilty for that, for not taking over Voldemort’s mind sooner. Every second counted. One second could’ve meant the difference between him never being able to talk again and a full recovery. But despite how concerned I was over Draco’s recovery, there was one thing that happened today that I just couldn’t stop thinking about: the sex.

Draco had initiated it. I was sure of it. But, he hadn’t seemed to enjoy it. He’d sounded like he was in pain and then he’d been cross with me when it was over. And worse, there was the blood when it was over. Had I done it right? Maybe I’d done it wrong and hurt him. He was in pain, because I’d made him bleed. And he couldn’t even speak, to tell me I was hurting him!

When I was done with my bath, I dressed in my pajamas, grateful that my trunk had been sent along, and went up to Ron’s attic room. The spare bed was already set up and made, so I lay down.

Ron must’ve noticed and followed me, because a minute later he joined me, lying on his own bed as he pulled his own pajamas out of his dresser, but instead of getting changed, he lay there clutching his pajamas in a ball under his arm.

“Today’s turned kind of mental, yeah? I thought you were going back to those awful Dursleys of yours and I was well rid of you for at least a month,” he joked good naturedly.

“Yeah, I certainly didn’t expect to see you again so soon. But I have to say, I was so relieved when Dumbledore told me I got to spend one week here before I have to go back. I don’t think I could handle everything that happened today and then be forced to go back to Privet Drive tonight on top of it. I need someone to talk to!” I exclaimed.

“Well I’m all ears mate. What didn’t you tell us at the dinner table?” he asked.

“I lost my virginity today,” I admitted, looking at the Quidditch poster on his wall instead of making eye contact.

“You did! To who? When did you even have time!?” he asked, excitement in his voice.

“Malfoy, while his mum was talking to Dumbledore.” I couldn’t help the small smile on my face.

“Malfoy! You’re bent!?! And with Malfoy!?! He’s an arsehole!”

“He was different today. I was wondering if maybe the Cruciatus curse caused him enough brain damage to change his personality. But there was still a personality there, it wasn’t like with Neville’s parents, he was just a completely different person,” I explained.

“Mate, I think you might be the one with brain damage. Shagging Malfoy? Draco Malfoy? Even if he’s a changed wizard from one torture curse, to go from hating him to shagging him in the span of one day!?! I don’t understand that, mate,” Ron replied.

“He drew a picture of me saving him as his angel…” I defended myself, arms wrapped in front of my body in a protective posture.

“One picture, a pretty face, and a willing arse is all it takes to get you going then,” Ron summed up.

“Well…It’s Malfoy. It’s always been Malfoy. I’d just possessed Voldemort to save him. My adrenalin was pumping and he came on to me! He kissed me! It would’ve been different with anyone else, but with him, it just felt right.”

“And you liked it? The kissing?” he asked.

I nodded.

He asked again, “Are you bent?”

“Um, er…I don’t know?”

“Well if you had sex with a bloke, you’re bent, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Charlie’s bent,” Ron said and when I shifted my gaze over to him and made eye contact, he smiled.

“Yeah?” I asked, glad we’d gotten off the part about Draco Malfoy.

“Yeah. It’s no big deal. My parents don’t care, because they have 5 other sons to produce grandchildren. Malfoy’s parents might not be so pleased, though,” he revealed.

“Oh…bent blokes can’t have kids, can they?” I asked, disappointed at this thought. I’d always wanted a family of my own.

“Nah, but there are other ways. You could adopt, or I think the Pure-Bloods, when there isn’t another heir, higher a witch to carry a child for them. My cousin did it once for the Selwyn family.”

“Oh, then that’s not so bad,” I said, feeling relieved over that issue being settled.

“You do know though, that you’re lucky he’s not a bird. In the wizarding world, the Pure-Bloods still follow the old ways,” he said.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“Well, if you would’ve had sex with a girl Pure-Blood, her parents would register it as you’d married her. If you didn’t honor the marriage, they’d claim you were cheating on their daughter. There are loads of fines for that and if you do it too much and get caught, you can actually go to Azkaban for that!”

“No way!” I exclaimed, vowing to never have sex with a female Pure-Blood. Go to prison for wanting to have sex before getting married and then breaking up and having sex with someone else?

“Yeah, especially if the person you cheat with is another virgin unmarried Pure-Blood chick,” Ron added. “Because then, you’d be married to both of them.”

“Must be a lot of divorce among the Pure-Bloods so that doesn’t happen,” I observed.

“No, no, divorce isn’t allowed. Marriage is forever. They only do annulments if the couple fails to produce a child. That happens more often than you’d think, because of all the inbreeding. It’s hard to know which second cousin you’re compatible with and which you aren’t. When I was a kid, Luna Lovegood’s uncle was married to this one witch for five years and they never had a kid. Then they get it annulled and each remarry, and within a year, they both have kids.”

“So if you have sex with a witch, you can only get an annulment if you can’t have kids? That’s crazy,” I said.

“Yeah, crazy,” he seconded.

“Good thing I’m bent. I’m not married to Malfoy, now, am I?” I asked, just to make sure. “It’s not like the two of us will ever be able to have kids.”

Ron shrugged. “Most likely, not. I overheard Charlie bragging about how many Pure-Blood blokes he’d shagged, because gay wizards don’t care about the old ways, while Bill was stuck still a virgin. Had to go Muggle, Bill did, to finally get laid.”

“Oh, well that’s not too bad.”

“So, how’d it happen? I can’t imagine it. He came on to you, yeah?” he asked.

“Yeah, as soon as his mum left, he kissed me. He kept kissing me. He’d made a sketch showing how I’d rescued him. He was different. It wasn’t like Neville’s parents, where they just weren’t there, because he was there, only he couldn’t talk and he was suddenly nice to me,” I answered.

“He wanted you, because you saved him,” Ron summarized, nodding to himself. “So how’d you do it? Who took it up the bum?”

“Um, neither?” I answered, like I was asking a question.

“Harry, one of you has to take it up the arse, or it doesn’t count as full out gay sex. Otherwise it’s just a blow-job or something.”

“No, he bought a potion. It was like Polyjuice, but for down _there_. It gave him girl parts. We did it that way,” I tried my best to explain.

“He took a potion to turn his bits into girl bits?” Ron asked, scrunching up his face at the idea.

“Yeah. Does that make me not gay, if he had girl bits when we did it?” I asked.

“No, not unless he had completely transformed into a girl, like say, polyjuicing into Daphne Greengrass or something.”

“No, he was still him. Only his bits changed.”

“Well that may make you bi or something. I’d think that if he did that and you only liked one or the other, you’d be grossed out. But maybe we should ask Hermione, to make sure,” he suggested.

“No, please don’t tell her…I don’t want the lecture _nor_ the emotional feelings stuff. There really weren’t all those girly feelings with him and I don’t want her butting in and saying there were. It was just sex, not marriage for life,” I said pleadingly.

“Okay, but she could probably figure out what the potion was. If I were you, I’d want to know, so I could stock up for next time,” he said, raising an eyebrow knowingly.

“He did stock up. Mungo’s sold it by the case, so he bought a bunch and hid them away in his mother’s purse, without her even noticing. I still can’t believe we didn’t get caught! His mum and Dumbledore were just down the hall the whole time!”

“It was close, huh?”

“Yeah. I thought for sure we were going to have to call the healers in, because he’d almost died earlier, and he was bleeding down there,” I replied.

“Really? Like a witch for the first time?” he asked.

“Yeah. I thought I hurt him. He didn’t seem to enjoy it. He even seemed mad at me right afterwards, but then he got over it.” I shrugged.

“The potion must’ve worn off and everything went back to normal,” he concluded.

“Must’ve,” I agreed. “He certainly didn’t keep bleeding. It would’ve shown through the white robes they’d given him.”

“Yeah, must’ve changed him right back,” Ron replied.

“Yeah, I bet a healer wouldn’t even be able to tell once all the evidence was gone,” I said, feeling better about the situation. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had worried that he’d gotten found out after I left.

“Definitely. Otherwise, the healers would have realized what happened when they checked him over before releasing him. The wrong bits between his legs would be rather noticeable, I imagine,” Ron said, reassuringly.

I nodded. “I just hope he moves the extra potion vials before his mum finds them,” I said.

“Most witches have undetectable extension charms on their purses. My mum has lost track of sooo much stuff inside hers. She has to Accio anything she wants, because there’s so much other junk. And then there is a special compartment for potion vials, so they don’t break. Narcissa Malfoy would surely have a purse with even more features than that, so who knows what else is in there. I bet she never looks in the potion compartment unless she needs to pull out a potion. You’ve probably gotten away with it, mate. Just don’t make it a habit, yeah? Even though you’re bent, Pure-Bloods still get mad if they think you’re sleeping around too much and cheating on your boyfriend. Charlie’s blokes were only cool with it, because they’d agreed to the one night stands.”

“Is he my boyfriend?” I asked, suddenly worried. I wasn’t worried that he thought we were boyfriends and I didn’t want to be, but I was worried that he’d assumed we were and expect things of me that he couldn’t communicate to me, because he couldn’t talk. I wouldn’t mind having an actual boyfriend, complete with benefits.

“Don’t know. You’ll have to fire-call him tomorrow and find out.”

“Yeah. And maybe I can find a book on how to be better in bed. I want him to enjoy it next time.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, before casting a Tempus charm. “Fuck, it’s late.”

We’d talked half the night away.

“Yeah, let’s get some sleep,” I agreed, turning my back to the wall so that he could change into his pajamas in peace.

* * *

That night I dreamed about cursing Draco Malfoy. I was possessing Voldemort’s body again and casting the Cruciatus curse until Draco was nothing but a lump on the floor. When I woke up in the middle of the night, all the horror from the day before came rushing back to me. It had certainly felt like it was my fault when it was happening. Even now, I couldn’t help but think that if I was faster in taking over Voldemort’s body and stopping him, Draco might be able to speak. I wasted time screaming, controlling Voldemort’s mouth, when I should’ve been focusing on controlling the wand.

But then I pushed my guilt aside and fell back to sleep.

* * *

In the morning, while Mrs. Weasley was making breakfast and Mr. Weasley was fire-calling Kingsley regarding Order business, Ron motioned for the twins to follow us outside to talk. We walked around to the back of the chicken coop, so our voices wouldn’t carry back into the house.

“Well, Ronnikins, what is it?” George asked.

“Yeah, Little Ronny, what do you want?” Fred seconded.

“It’s for Harry,” Ron started.

“You can’t just say that to get stuff out of us, because he’s here,”  
Fred replied.

“Yeah, is it _really_ for Harry?” George asked pointedly.

“Yeah it is. Tell them, Harry,” Ron replied.

I nodded.

“Well, what is it?” George asked.

“Yeah, don’t keep us in suspense,” Fred seconded.

“He met someone. He needs to know how to be good in bed. He wants to know how to make it feel good, for the girl,” Ron revealed.

I nodded.

“Harry!” Fred exclaimed wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“A man after our own hearts,” George added, wrapping his arm around my other shoulder, pinning me between the two of them.

“So you’ll help me?” I asked hopefully.

“You’ve turned to the right place. Fred here is a virgin; saving himself for Angelina, he is. But I’ve followed Bill into the Muggle world to dabble in pretty young Muggles, if you know what I mean,” George replied with a lecherous grin.

“We know what you mean. Just tell us how to make a girl cream her pants,” Ron insisted.

“Patience, Ronnikins, patience,” Fred said condescendingly.

“It’s all about patience, with the ladies. Don’t rush it. Don’t just stick it in there. Make her cum before you even start,” George said.

“And how do we _do_ that?” Ron asked, bordering on exasperation.

“Oral, dear brother, oral,” Fred answered. “Angelina loves it _and_ , it doesn’t even count as marriage.”

“Oral, like a blow job?” Ron asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

“But for _her_. Just go down on Hermione and start licking her clit,” George revealed.

“When she’s really into it, you can add a couple of fingers,” Fred added.

“Let her direct you how and where she likes to be touched,” George instructed.

“And whatever you do, don’t stick it in a Pure-Blood unless you want to be married,” Fred added.

“Harry won’t have that problem over the summer. What he plans to do won’t produce any babies,” Ron replied.

“Ah, so you already know about condoms, then, Harry?” George asked.

I nodded my head. “Yeah, of course,” I answered, even though I wouldn’t need them with a bloke.

“Good,” George replied.

“Let’s see if we can find this one a book with some diagrams to help him out; make it easier to spot the clit,” Fred said.

George agreed at the same time that we heard Mrs. Weasley’s voice calling us to breakfast.

* * *

After breakfast, Mr. Weasley and the twins left. Less than an hour later, a sex book popped out of the floo. Ginny, being closest at the time, let out a shriek of surprise and quickly covered the book with her bum, by sitting on it, so her mum wouldn’t see. Mrs. Weasley was suspicious, but as soon as her back was turned, Ginny handed the book over to Ron, who made off with it up the stairs just about as fast as I’d ever seen him run.

“Um, yeah, I think I’ll just go upstairs…” I trailed off, before dashing up the stairs behind Ron, leaving Ginny alone with her mum.

Ron and I then spent the next three hours memorizing every picture and diagram in that book, Ron paying special attention to the location of the clit. I didn’t tell Ron that I wouldn’t have trouble finding Draco’s clit, because it was the little nub his cock turned into. Ron wouldn’t want to know that sort of detail. As far as the book went, I was more interested in what I was supposed to do to the clit.

* * *

After lunch, I fire-called over to Grimmauld Place. My head popped out of the fireplace in the kitchen, where Kreacher was washing dishes.

“Kreacher!” I called.

“Yes, Master?” Kreacher asked.

“I thought I sent you to work at the kitchens in Hogwarts?” I asked.

“You did, Master. But Albus Dumbledore, Master of Hogwarts, ordered Kreacher to return to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black to serve the new wonderful heirs,” Kreacher said gleefully.

“Right. Can you fetch Draco Malfoy? I need to speak to him,” I requested.

“Right away, Master,” Kreacher said with a low bow.

Kreacher disappeared and came back several long minutes later with both Draco and Narcissa Malfoy.

I groaned and addressed Narcissa, “Mrs. Malfoy, I was wanting to speak to Draco alone, if that’s alright.”

“Normally I would allow it, but just now my son is not capable of speech. I think it would be better if you came through. We’ve plenty of floo powder. You may return to the Weasleys any time you like,” Narcissa replied.

“Fine,” I said. “See you soon.”

I pulled my head out of the fireplace, relayed the short conversation first to Ron and Ginny, and then to Mrs. Weasley, and then got permission from Ron’s mum to floo over.

Draco, Narcissa, and Kreacher were still in the kitchen waiting for me when I flooed back over.

“Draco, can we go upstairs to talk?” I asked, because I didn’t want to talk in front of Kreacher, who was washing dishes, nor Narcissa, who was standing there too.

Draco nodded and headed towards the stairs. I followed him. At first I thought the drawing room might work for our conversation, but he didn’t stop at the drawing room. He kept going up the stairs until he reached the fourth floor, where he led me into a bedroom. His school trunk was there and some of his things were already strewn about the room. He closed the door, sat down on the bed, and looked at me expectantly.

“Yeah, well…er, I was wondering if we’re together now. Like together together. Serious together,” I stammered.

He nodded.

I let out a breath of relief, because I’d been hoping he’d be my boyfriend and now it seemed like we were.

He reached over to grab a silver box on his nightstand. Then with box in hand, he straightened up, opened the box, and retrieved a metal ring, holding it out to me.

At first I almost crapped myself, worried he was about to present me with a wedding ring. Then I got a look at it and realized it was only a ring with the Malfoy crest on it. The upper years at Hogwarts often exchanged rings like these as promise rings, when they were serious about someone. It wasn’t a wedding ring.

He reached out and grabbed my hand and then slipped the ring on the ring finger of my left hand. “Er, thanks. But I don’t have one for you,” I said.

He shrugged. Then he picked another ring out of his metal jewelry box, this one with the Black family crest on it, and slipped it on his own ring finger of his left hand.

“Right, because I inherited the Black house. Makes sense,” I said. Given that I didn’t have a Potter crest ring, it was a reasonable substitute. It was just lucky he happened to have a Black family crest ring, probably because his mother was a Black.

He pulled on my hand until I sat down next to him. Then he kissed me. Soon he was full on snogging me, hot, heavy, and full of passion. I eagerly snogged him back and began to feel him up. A few minutes later, when my hands reached his chest, I froze. He still had breasts under his robes. I pulled back, gasping for breath.

Then I asked, “Did you take more of that potion?”

He nodded.

I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering when he’d had a chance to drink the potion, without his mother noticing. He hadn’t known I was coming over until he was in the kitchen with his mum. But he had taken it, so surely he must’ve snuck away long enough to do so and then returned to the kitchen in that short time. And then it occurred to me that he’d probably been expecting this to lead to sex since the moment I stepped through the floo.

Anticipating what I was on about, Draco went over to his nightstand and opened the bottom drawer to reveal the four racks of potion vials. He reached inside and produced an empty vial, as if to show me the evidence of the potion he’d taken.

I nodded in understanding. “Alright, but this time I want to do something first,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow at me, as if to ask me what I meant.

“Here, pull up your robes, lay back, and I’ll show you,” I said, pulling at his robes.

His robes went up. He had trousers underneath, which he pulled down, and pulled his underlying pants down in the same motion. I smiled and pushed him down onto the bed, pushing again on his still cloth covered chest when he righted himself into a sitting position. He got the message then and laid down.

I positioned myself between his legs, kneeling on the rug covered floor. Then I spread his legs, getting my first proper look at his crotch today. It was gorgeous and his clit was just as I remembered. I stuck my tongue out and licked it. He let out a squeal at that. I did it again, and again, licking his fat clit as best I could. When he began panting and moaning, I added first one and then two fingers to his wet pussy. He came on my fingers, his walls clamping down on my fingers and pushing his juices out with the force of his orgasm. And then because the book I’d read that morning said it was a good idea to give your partner multiple orgasms, I did it all again, until he was cumming on my hand again. Only then did I take my cock out and fuck him for the second time. He was so blissed out after his second orgasm that I hardly got a response out of him, but at least he wasn’t showing any signs of pain. And like the first time, I came sooner than I’d ever cum wanking, by half.

Afterwards, he wiped himself up with a shirt he pulled from a pile of clothes in the corner. Then he redressed and fixed himself to look presentable again. I picked up the already soiled shirt from where he abandoned it and used it to wipe myself up with as well. I was pleased to see that there was no blood this time. I pulled out my wand and Scourgified the shirt, in case him mum saw it before Kreacher does the wash, and then threw the shirt back into the pile it had come from. Then I redid my trousers and checked to make sure I was presentable in the mirror. My hair was an absolute mess, but only slightly more than normal.

“Are we good?” I asked, pointing between our chests.

He nodded, a dopey smile on his face.

“You liked it this time, huh?” I asked, wanting some encouragement for my efforts.

He nodded.

“Good. I can floo over every day while I’m staying at the Weasleys, but my aunt and uncle don’t have access to the floo network, so starting next week I won’t be able to see you until August,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t be mad at me.

He shrugged. Then he went back over to his nightstand, picked up his drawing tablet, flipped the page, and showed me a new drawing he’d done.

It was another cartoon. In this one, the black haired green eyed figure with a scar on his head aimed his wand at a taller bald figure with red eyes and a slit nose. The first figure waved his wand at the second, causing the latter’s head to explode, sending red splatters across the parchment.

Draco tore off the drawing and handed it to me.

“Ah, thanks?” I asked, wondering if I was expected to explode Voldemort’s head now.

“Draco!” Narcissa’s voice called from the hallway. Then there was a knock on the door. “Draco, we have to go now!”

Draco opened the door to his mother and nodded.

“Mr. Potter, I’m sorry to cut your visit short, but Draco has an appointment with a mind healer at St. Mungo’s that we must be getting to. You are welcome to come back tomorrow,” Narcissa said.

I nodded and said, “I’ll just be going, yeah?”

“Yes. Come along, Draco,” Narcissa said, before descending the stairs.

Draco followed shortly after his mother. I waited a minute and followed behind at a slower pace. I heard the sound of the front door opening and then Narcissa’s voice hurrying Draco along. The front door shut while I was still coming down the last step.

I looked out the front window to see the Malfoys getting into a black Limousin. A moment after the Limousin door shut, the black vehicle vanished in a puff of magic, like the Knight bus. It was probably privately owned by the Malfoys. It must’ve cost a fortune. And it explained how Draco had gotten home from the train so fast, if this personal Limousin had been waiting for him outside Kings Cross Station.

* * *

When I flooed over the next morning, Narcissa informed me that Draco was now spending the mornings with a tutor, to try to relearn the things he’d lost. So I went back to the Burrow and tried again after lunch. This time, Draco and Narcissa were sitting at the kitchen table. Narcissa had a nearly empty plate in front of her, with just enough crumbs and drops of sauce to indicate that she’d already eaten. Draco had a spread of items in front of him, including applesauce, pudding, mashed potatoes, and soup. He was currently eating the last few bites of a dish of ice cream.

“Erm, hello!” I greeted.

“Hello, Mr. Potter. Draco is still eating his lunch,” Narcissa said.

“Please, call me Harry, Mrs. Malfoy,” I replied.

“Well then, Harry, it’s technically Lady Malfoy, but I would like it if you called me Cissy,” she replied.

“Alright, Cissy. I can sit with Draco while he finishes lunch,” I said.

“Alright. Please encourage him to eat more than just the ice cream,” she said, standing up.

“Er, this is an odd assortment of lunch items…” I trailed off.

“Draco choked the day before yesterday. He’s been refusing hard foods, although he indicated that his throat does not hurt. The healer says it’s common following this type of trauma and should pass on its own,” Narcissa explained.

“Alright,” I replied.

Draco pushed away the empty ice cream bowl, moved the bowl of soup into position in front of him, and made a motion with his hand to indicate that his mother’s presence was no longer required.

Narcissa left.

I sat down across from Draco.

Draco glanced towards the door to make sure his mother was gone and then moved the soup away. He picked the empty ice cream bowl back up and pushed it towards me, indicating he wanted something.

“You want more ice cream?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Um, I think your mum wanted you to eat other types of food, not just ice cream,” I said.

He put down the bowl and went to the pantry, opening the door to the charmed cool compartment. He fetched out the carton of cream and a carton of blueberries. He poured the berries into his empty bowl and then began to mash them with his fork. When he had squashed each berry, he frowned at the result, and held the bowl out to me.

“You want me to fix it?” I asked.

He nodded, so I attempted a spell I’d seen Mrs. Weasley use to puree foods. The little pieces of blueberry skin shredded into fine flakes amongst the puree.

He nodded his approval, placed the bowl on the table, and added some cream. He then mixed the two with his spoon. Finally, he pulled his wand out of his sleeve and performed a wordless variant of the freezing charm that turned the mixture into ice cream. Then he picked up his spoon and began to eat.

“I don’t think that’s what your mum wanted you to eat…” I trailed off.

He shrugged and kept eating. When he finished, he snapped his fingers and Kreacher appeared.

Kreacher asked, “Yes, Master Draco, sir? What can Kreacher be doing for young master?”

Draco made a sweeping motion to indicate all the food and dishes on the table.

“Right away, Master Draco, sir!” Kreacher exclaimed. The elf snapped his fingers and all of the food vanished. Then with another snap, all of the dishes were in the sink.

As the elf walked to the sink, Draco strode towards the doorway, motioning for me to follow.

We went up to his room. He shut and locked the door behind him, while I sat down on his bed. Then he went over to his nightstand and pulled out his rack of potion vials. He held the rack out to me for me to see. There was an empty spot, where the very first potion vial was missing from. Then there were two empty vials in the next two slots. He must be showing it to me now in anticipation of what I was going to ask.

“You already took it today? Before lunch?” I asked. He must’ve been expecting me.

He nodded and pulled his shirt off, revealing a pair of small breasts underneath.

“Didn’t your mum notice?” I asked.

He shook his head and threw his shirt at me. Then he crawled into my lap and pushed on the inside of the shirt. His hand disappeared inside the shirt, but there was no bulge on the outside.

“Let me see,” I said, taking the shirt from him and repeating the motion for myself. Sure enough, my hand felt like it was distorting the fabric on the inside, but no distortion was visible on the outside.

“It’s charmed,” I concluded.

He nodded. Then he pulled at my shirt, the same one that I’d worn the day before, because it was my nicest one. I took the hint and helped him get my shirt off. And since I didn’t know how much more time we’d have before the potion would wear off, I quickly shucked my trousers and pants off too. Then I pulled at his trousers and he helped me remove them and the underlying pants.

As soon as he was naked too, he pushed me back on the bed and attacked my mouth with his lips. We kissed and made out with my hands roaming over his smooth skin, until we were both hot and panting for breath. As soon as I caught my breath, I pushed him down on the bed and went between his thighs to eat him out, waiting until he was moaning and writhing before I added two fingers. I explored his hot wet folds with my fingers and was a bit surprised when I felt a nub towards the rear of his canal. I pressed on the nub and he moaned.

“Is that a cervix?” I asked, surprised at the detail of the potion.

He nodded.

“You like this?” I asked, pressing on it again.

He nodded again.

The sex book the twins had sent Ron and me didn’t mention cervical stimulation, but if he liked it, then I wasn’t going to knock it. The book had mentioned something called a G-spot, which wasn’t supposed to be so far back, but I hadn’t found that yet. Instead I got him off fingering his cervix and licking his clit.After he came, he climbed on top of me and rode me while he massaged his clit himself. Then he came on my shaft and it was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from cumming inside him in that moment even if I’d tried.

He collapsed on top of me while he regained his breath. Then he cast a wordless Tempest charm. By the way he jumped up and started scrambling around for his clothes, I figured we were pushing it in terms of time. He probably had another afternoon healer appointment and any minute his mum would be knocking on his door, ready to go. I jumped up and scrambled to put my clothes back on as well.

As predicted, we were barely decent when we heard Narcissa’s voice calling out for Draco.

I was still buttoning up my pants when Draco exited the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

The next day, the third official day of summer vacation, I made it my mission to find Draco’s G-spot. I’d studied up on it in the morning and then flooed over to Grimmauld Place after lunch. Once I’d found it, I kept at it until I had his eyes rolling back into his head, his toes curling up, his legs twitching and clamping down around my head, and his hands clutching the sheet underneath him. I lost count of how many times he came that day. I only knew that he screamed in pleasure so loud that the neighbors would’ve heard, if I hadn’t of had the foresight to cast a silencing spell first. It was the first time since Voldemort had Crucioed him that it registered in my head just how capable of making sound he still was.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth days of summer vacation were much the same, with my afternoons spent at Grimmauld Place making Draco Malfoy cum on my tongue, my fingers, and my cock. That week, I had so much sex that it made up for my previous almost sixteen years of virginal existence.

The seventh day, my last day before having to return to the Muggle world, Ron and Ginny came with me to Grimmauld Place. We had a bit of a party. It was an awkward event, because Draco didn’t get along with either of the Weasleys. He scowled at Ron and flicked me in the ear every time Ginny touched me, got to close to me, or tried to start up a conversation with me. Fifteen minutes into the party, Draco pulled me away and started leading me towards his bedroom.

“Are you trying to have sex with me right now, while my friends are here?” I whispered into his ear on the staircase.

He nodded.

I groaned and then nodded, because he likely had already taken his potion for the day and therefore only had the short window before his healer appointment to get off. I decided to check by inserting my hand down his trousers into his pants. Not only was there a lack of male genitalia, but his pants were soaking wet with pussy juice. My hand came away covered in the stuff, glistening in the summer light that poured in through a window.

“You’re really horny, aren’t you?” I asked fondly. I got an erection just thinking about how much he must want me. It felt good to be wanted like this; as far as I knew, he was the first one.

He nodded, a faint blush on his cheeks and pupils wide with lust.

“Alright, okay. Er, just let me get rid of them. I’ll meet you in your room, okay?” I asked, wondering what I should do with the slick on my hand.

He nodded.

First I ducked into the loo to grab a hand towel, which I wiped my hand off on. Then I went back downstairs and awkwardly asked my friends to leave, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand that still smelled like Draco’s pussy and looking down at my trainers the whole time, because I was so embarrassed. Ron caught on first, his eyes going wide, but instead of going, he stood there opened mouthed gaping at me like I’d grown a second head.

Ginny caught on second. “Oh, come on, Ronald. Just because you’ve never snogged anyone doesn’t mean Harry can’t. He doesn’t want an audience, you git,” she said, shoving her brother towards the stairs.

“Thanks for understanding,” I called after them.

“No problem,” Ginny called back to me, dragging Ron down the stairs with her. Then she said to her brother, “Snap out of it, or mum will catch on!”

I watched them go, somewhat miffed with Draco that we couldn’t even have one afternoon to chill together with my friends, without having sex. Was that all our relationship was? Sex.

But I completely forgot my sour feelings when I entered Draco’s room to find him spread out naked on his bed, waiting for me.

I locked the door and silenced the room. Then I turned around and he was on me, snogging me. He pushed me onto the bed and rode me while I stroked his clit. After he came, I flipped us over and took him missionary, and came after only a few minutes. It was just as hot and sensual as the other times and left me with a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest and a sated feeling. Afterwards, we lay there together in each other’s arms, cuddling.

A good ten minutes later, I asked, “Do you think next time we can spend time together with my friends?”

He nodded into my chest.

“Don’t get me wrong; I love the sex. I love the snogging too. I just want more. I want to snog you in the castle corridors and then chill with you in my arms in the common room. It doesn’t have to always be my common room with my friends. We can go to your common room and hang out with your friends too. Merlin, I wish you could come to the Burrow and play Quidditch with us and everything,” I said.

Again, he nodded into my chest.

“You’d like that too?” I asked, a sappy feeling growing inside me as he smiled at me and nodded again.

“I have to go away, back to my aunt and uncle’s house until the thirty-first of July. I won’t be able to see you, but I’ll write to you, yeah?”

He nodded.

“Will you write back?” I asked another.

With that, he sat up, grabbed his drawing pad and his pencil and began to draw. I watched him work, noticing for the first time that the pencil was magical, changing color as he drew. He drew two cartoon figures, one with long dark red hair and the other with messy black hair. As he filled in the eyes of the black haired one, the lead changed to green. The red haired one resembled Ginny and in the cartoon, she threw her arms around the black haired one. Draco finished his drawing off by drawing a giant red X threw the pair.

“You don’t like Ginny hugging me?” I asked, wondering if he was jealous.

He nodded and drew little pink hearts surrounding cartoon Ginny’s head. Then I knew he was jealous.

“That’s what today was about? Ginny was too close to me or something?” I asked and he nodded.

He started drawing again. This time the figure had hair that was short and more of an orangey red, with blue eyes. It was scowling and it looked like Ron.

I wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting at about Ron. I certainly hadn’t noticed Ron being unfriendly towards Draco, but then my focus had been on Draco and how hot Draco had looked, so maybe I’d missed something. “You two just need some time to get to know each other better,” I suggested.

He nodded. Then he retrieved another drawing pad from the top drawer of his nightstand and handed it over to me.

I flipped the pad open to reveal a drawing of me outside the room of requirement at Hogwarts. The cartoon figure of me was holding a crown and then as I watched, the figure threw the crown on the ground and stomped on it. On the next page, I was in a forest somewhere, the Sword of Gryffindor in my cartoon hands. Nagini was there too and I used the sword to chop the giant snake in half. One half started to move and out crawled a cartoon person. That one was pretty creepy, so instead of dwelling on the cartoon snake having ate a person alive, I flipped the page. There I was, dueling Voldemort in the forest. I cast Expelliarmus and Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra and the two spells met in the middle, like when we were in the graveyard and our twin wand cores had saved me. My Expelliarmus won and the Voldemort figure keeled over dead. There was one more drawing after that. It was of the fancy room I’d seen through Voldemort’s eyes when he’d Crucioed Draco, but Voldemort wasn't there in this scene. Instead, Draco was there holding a little blond green eyed baby and there was a black haired child running around his feet. I was there, standing by his side and looking down at the child in his arms. Then my figure bent down and scooped the black haired child up. The four made the image of a happy family.

“This is brilliant,” I said, wanting it to be as he’d shown it.

* * *

All too soon I had to go back to the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon was released from hospital that same day and Aunt Petunia installed him in his chair in the living room for everyone to wait on him, because he was still having trouble getting around after his surgery. My uncle, for his part, blamed me for his heart problems and resulting surgery. But my aunt, on the other hand, thought I’d likely saved his life by acting up in public near a hospital where emergency help was readily available, as opposed to giving my uncle a heart attack at home. That combined with what I told her about my god father being murdered and my mate from school being tortured and then my possessing the mind of my parents’ murderer to save said mate from school, had her and the rest of the family giving me a wide berth all summer.

One of the worst things about being back at Privet Drive, was that I no longer had floo access to Draco. Instead, my only form of communication was having Hedwig deliver letters back and forth. Letters that Draco couldn’t read by himself and had to have either his mum or his tutor help him with. He couldn’t write either, so his letters back to me were always cartoon drawings. Sometimes I wondered if I was interpreting his drawings correctly, because they weren’t always of things that were possible. For example, one time he sent me a cartoon of the two of us, only his cartoon had a baby bump and a sketch of a little tiny black haired green eyed pointy chinned baby inside. I took that one to be a fantasy of the future, rather than reality, and to indicate that he’d like to get married and go the surrogate route to children one day, because even with his gender transforming potion, him being pregnant was just not a possibility.

Shortly after the drawing of him pregnant, came a two part cartoon that had me worried. In the first panel, my cartoon figure was wearing a frilly white wedding dress and exchanging rings with his cartoon figure, who was wearing elegant black dress robes. I would’ve said it was a depiction of our future fantasy wedding, if not for the fact that he drew his bed and wardrobe in the background, to indicate the room he slept in at Grimmauld Place. I thought he might be implying that our exchange of rings in his room was the two of us getting married, but surely not. We were going steady, not married, weren’t we?  
The second panel of the worrisome drawing showed a blond cartoon witch who bore a resemblance to Narcissa Malfoy. In it, the witch lifted cartoon Draco’s left hand to her eye level and glared daggers at the ring on his ring finger. Then she dropped the hand and pointed an accusing finger at cartoon Draco and appeared to lecture her cartoon son. I took this to mean that we’d been found out. But just how much had his mum figured out?

* * *

A week before my birthday, I received a drawing from Draco showing cartoon figures of him and his mother in a grape vineyard, sat at a table set with croissants and a french flag in the background. The Draco figure had an extra curved line in the belly area, possibly indicating that he was full of delicious French food. I took the drawing to mean that his mother had decided to turn a family property located in France into their new safe house. I wrote him a letter back asking if he knew when the new safe house would be ready.

* * *

As my time with the Dursleys drew towards its end, I began looking forward to seeing Draco again. I wrote him a letter asking if he would be able to floo to the Burrow for the birthday celebration the Weasleys were planning for me. What I got back was a short letter from Narcissa Malfoy stating that no, Draco would not be allowed over to the Burrow, but that she would like to meet me the day after my birthday at Grimmauld Place.

I was bummed about Draco not being allowed to attend my birthday, but I assumed he would be at Grimmauld Place with his mother and I looked forward to seeing him. He and his mother were staying at Grimmauld Place for the summer, after all.

The birthday party the Weasleys threw me was really nice, but I couldn’t help but look forward to the following day more, sure I was about to finally get to see Draco again.

As the last of the non-Weasley guests left and my party came to an end, Fred and George pulled me aside and cast a privacy spell, so that we wouldn’t be overheard..

“Harry, Harry, Harry. What’s this we hear about you and Draco Malfoy?” Fred asked, draping his arm around me at my birthday party.

“Yeah, we thought you were going after some girl, but Ronald insists that Malfoy is your girl,” George added.

“Um, er, yeah, I’m with Malfoy. Thanks for the book, it helped a lot,” I answered.

“But the book we sent was for women. Did Malfoy really transfigure himself into a witch?” Fred asked.

“Yep, but it was a potion, not transfiguration,” I replied.

“That doesn’t matter. I just want to make sure you’re not confunded or something,” George said.

“Yeah, are you sure you haven’t been imperiused?” Fred asked.

“I’m sure. I’m with Malfoy of my own free will. I haven’t been given a love potion or anything,” I answered.

“Then please, Harry, explain why you are in a sexual relationship with that git,” George said.

“Because he’s hot and I want to be,” I answered.

“No sex can be that good, can it George?” Fred asked his brother.

“I’ve never had any that good. Is he really that good a lay, Harry?” George asked.

I nodded and answered, “Yeah, he is.”

“Do tell,” George said, an eager look to him.

“Yes, what about him makes you weak in the knees?” Fred asked.

“How wet he gets when I touch him, for one,” I answered. How attracted he was to me was probably the biggest turn on. “And the sounds he makes when I’m making him cum, for two. His moans are so hot. Oh, and the way his pussy cums on me is the best feeling I’ve felt in my entire life.”

“Well that explains it,” Fred said.

“Yes, our little Harry has gotten one taste of pussy and now he’s in love,” George added.

“Probably likes it rough,” Fred added.

“Could be hate sex or make up sex,” George said.

“A bit of a fight first get your blood going for a jump in the sack, Harry?” Fred asked.

“What? No! We don’t fight anymore. Why would we fight? He can’t insult anyone without his voice,” I answered. The instant that Voldemort cast Crucio on Draco, my urge to fight with him had vanished and was replaced with a protective desire. He’d have to go back to how he was before and be quite a bit of a git before I’d even think of squabbling with him again.

“Ron said Malfoy was communicating with you non-verbally,” Fred replied.

“Yeah, we heard he’s been owling you pictures too,” George added.

“He has, but nothing insulting,” I replied.

Fred and George exchanged a look.

“What do you reckon, Fred?” George asked.

“I reckon Malfoy has it bad for our little Harry,” Fred answered.

“That’s just what I was thinking,” George replied.

“Are you sure? How do you know?” I asked, hoping it was true.

“Harry, Malfoy is perfectly capable of insulting _all_ of us a thousand times over with his little sketches,” Fred answered.

“Like that one he did of you falling off your broom during a Quidditch game,” George added.

A scowl came to my face at the memory.

“So because we know he’s capable of it and you insist he’s not doing it,” Fred started.

“We know he must be head over heal for you too,” George finished.

“Young love,” Fred added.

“So sweet,” George said.

I felt my cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment at the way they spoke about me and Draco.

“Look at you, Harry, you’re turning red,” George said.

“You fit right in around here,” Fred said.

They both clapped their arms around my shoulders and began to lead me back towards the remains of the party, where everyone was cleaning up.

“Just be careful with that one,” Fred said as we walked.

“Yeah, he may be a bloke, but he’s still a Pure-Blood and we all know how it is with Pure-Bloods,” George added.

“Don’t tell mum, but between the three of us, I’m thinking of breaking down and marrying Angelina, if you know what I mean,” Fred said with a wink.

“That’s brilliant,” I replied.

* * *

The next morning, I dressed in the new Muggle jeans and button down shirt I’d gotten for my birthday from Hermione and flooed over to Grimmauld Place right after breakfast.

“Draco! Are you here?” I called out, still brushing soot off my new clothes from coming out of the kitchen fireplace.

No one responded to my call, so I made my way up the stairs and started searching the house. There were no signs of the Malfoys, not even their things lying about. Even the room Draco had been using was empty of all of his belongings and there was no sign he’d ever been there. Upon seeing that room, I knew something was wrong and called Kreacher.

Kreacher appeared in front of me, bowing low as he asked, “Yes Master?”

“Where are the Malfoys?” I asked.

“They left, sir.”

“Where did they go, Kreacher?”

“Kreacher is not certain, Master Harry, sir. Kreacher overheard Mistress Narcissa, ma'am, mention France. That’s all Kreacher knows.”

“When did they go?” I asked.

“Nine days ago, sir,” Kreacher answered.

I did the calculation and decided that that was the day the drawing of Draco in France had come. He hadn’t been trying to tell me that they were preparing to leave, but that they’d already left. I began to panic, thinking I’d never see him again, but then I remembered that Narcissa had agreed to meet me here today at Grimmauld Place. Surely she planned to come back.

I ordered Kreacher to return to Hogwarts, where the other elves could keep and eye on him, and dismissed him.

I then decided to spend the time while I waited doing a search of Grimmauld Place, to determine if I could locate anything the Malfoys had left behind. An hour later, I’d come up with nothing at all, except that the portrait of Sirius’ mum and the wall she was stuck to had been moved to the attic along with the elf heads and the troll leg umbrella stand. I was still in the attic fiddling with a sack of old Black family memorabilia that Kreacher had saved from Mrs. Weasley’s cleaning the year before, an old locket in my hands, when I heard the faint pop of apparition coming from the other side of the attic window. I rushed out of the attic, locket still in hand, just in time to hear the sound of the front door opening. I rushed down the stairs, sure this was finally them. Narcissa must’ve brought her son by side-along apparition.

“Harry, is that you?” Narcissa called from below as I rapidly descended the stairs.

“Yes, is Draco with you?” I called down to her, only one level above her now.

“No,” she answered, just as I reached the entry level and could see for myself that she was alone.

“Where’s Draco?” I asked.

“In France. Even if he had access to the international floo network, which he does not, surely you would agree that in his state it would be inadvisable to travel that way. He is not yet old enough to have an apparition licence and obtaining a Portkey keyed into the location of a safe house is a guaranteed way to quickly and surely compromise the location of said safe house,” she answered.

I was reminded then of my first time traveling by floo and how a mispronunciation of Diagon Alley had meant that I came out of the floo in Knockturn Alley. Since Draco couldn’t speak, he wouldn’t be able to floo.

“I thought maybe you’d brought him by side along apparition,” I replied.

“No, I left him at our new home. Perhaps we should have this conversation in the drawing room,” she suggested. I figured she didn’t know about side-along apparition or she didn’t know how to do it safely.

I agreed and led the way up the stairs. I sat on the sofa and realizing that I still had the old locket in my hands, set it down on the sofa next to me. She sat in an armchair, glaring daggers at me.

“So, can I visit Draco in France, if he can’t come to see me?” I asked, in order to get the awkward conversation started.

“No. Do you think I am a pushover, Harry? Do you really think that you can taint my virgin son, marry him behind my back, and that it will be okay with me?” she asked, her stare as intense as if she was a mother dragon and I’d stolen her egg.

“Married? No, we’re only going steady,” I denied.

She reached over and took hold of my left hand. “And what exactly do you suppose this Malfoy ring is doing on your hand, then, Harry?” she asked accusingly.

“It’s a promise ring. The kids at Hogwarts give them to each other all the time,” I replied, pulling my hand back.

“The teenagers at Hogwarts give them to each other when they are sleeping together, but have not yet had their public wedding ceremony. It indicates that they have married in secret.”

“No. I didn’t know,” I insisted.

“You didn’t know that when you slept with my son and exchanged rings with him, that you were marrying him in the eye of the law?” she asked accusingly.

“No, I didn’t know,” I repeated.

“And none of your friends told you what it means in our world when you take a Pure-Blood’s virginity?” she asked.

“No. I mean, er, Ron told me…but with a witch, not a wizard. I thought the rules were looser for blokes, because we can’t get pregnant.”

“Wizards can very much become pregnant with the right potions. You won’t be getting out of this marriage through an annulment,” she revealed.

“I didn’t know.” I kept repeating it, because I didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t like Draco could possibly be pregnant now, because if a potion was required first, then accidental pregnancies were not possible. Draco wouldn’t have taken such a potion before we were ready.

“You are telling me, Mr. Potter, that you helped yourself to my son under my nose and did not realize that you were marrying him or the consequences of your actions?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. I’ll marry him, with a ceremony and everything, if that’s what you want,” I answered.

“Your marriage is already legally binding and with the coming war, it wouldn’t do to announce it to the world with a ceremony. That would just be painting a target on Draco’s back when he is in no state to defend himself. The public announcement can wait until after you defeat the Dark Lord. Until then, I will be keeping Draco safe at our property in France,” she said.

“So I can’t see Draco until I end this war?” I asked, fiddling with the locket for something to do.

“Yes. What is that you’ve got there?” she asked.

“A Black family locket Kreacher saved, but Sirius wanted to throw away,” I said.

“I don’t recall the Black family having an evil locket like that. May I see it?” she asked.

I nodded and handed it over.

She took it, then gasped in fear, flinging it to the floor. “It’s horrendously evil. It feels like the Diary my husband was given to guard by the Dark Lord. I suggest you take it to Albus Dumbledore for destruction,” she said insistently.

“How can a locket be evil?” I asked, confused.

“The same way that Diary was evil. It has that S on the front of it. It could be the Slytherin locket. The Dark Lord is the last heir of Slytherin. The locket would have gone to Him when His mother died. He makes things evil,” Narcissa said.

“But then how did it get in this house?” I asked.

“My cousin Regulus Black, Sirius’ brother, was a Death Eater. No one stops being a Death Eater. The Dark Lord killed him for trying to leave. I wasn’t aware that he was entrusted with something like this, but then I’ve never been a Death Eater myself. He must have earned a high honor for himself before deciding to change sides. But it doesn’t matter how it got here: the point is that it’s here and it’s evil. It needs to be destroyed for all our safety,” she insisted.

“Alright, I’ll take it to Dumbledore,” I said.

“Do it now. Don’t tell anyone I told you what it is, besides Dumbledore. I don’t want retribution coming my way. Lucius will be murdered in his cell if they find out I have turned on them. I have to protect Draco from all of this. I’m going back to France,” she said, standing up.

She added a, “Goodbye and good luck in the coming war,” before she left the room. I heard quick footsteps on the stairs, before the opening of the front door. Then with a pop, she was gone.

I picked up the locket and flooed to Hogwarts, aiming for Dumbledore’s office. Luckily, he was there and he let me through.

“Harry, my boy, what can I do for you?” Professor Dumbledore asked.

“This locket. I found it in the attic of Grimmauld Place. Narcissa Malfoy told me that it’s Voldemort’s and needs to be destroyed. She thinks it’s evil. But she told me not to tell anyone but you. She’s worried Lucius will be killed for her betrayal and Draco is in danger from being too close to me,” I answered.

“Let me have a look,” Dumbledore said, hand outstretched for the locket. I passed it over. “Ah, yes, I’ve been looking for this. This belonged to Salazar Slytherin and was passed down to his descendants. The last known person to have it was Merope Gaunt, Tom’s mother. Narcissa was absolutely right that it needs to be destroyed. Would you like to do the honors?” With the last he indicated the sword of Gryffindor in its case.

“With the sword?” I asked, stepping towards it.

He nodded and said, “The sword imbibes anything that will make it stronger, including basilisk venom. I used it recently to destroy this ring.” He indicated the ring with the black stone on his blackened hand.

“You were going to tell me about that,” I said, picking up the sword.

He laid the locket out on his desk, clearing off all of the surrounding objects to a box on the floor.

“It was much the same as what we are doing now. I will tell you the full story soon enough. I plan on giving you lessons this coming year. I will reveal everything I know then. For now, it is enough that you know that Tom made many of these items, like the Diary, and they all have to be destroyed. Narcissa’s information led me to the second. I destroyed it at the beginning of this summer. This is the fourth. I suspect there might be a fifth hidden in this very school. This coming year, I will set you forward to search the castle and grounds for it. To find it, you’ll need to learn what they feel like. Can you feel the magic in this one?”

“A little. It’s heavy and cloying,” I answered. Narcissa Malfoy had seemed so sensitive to this sort of magic, when I could barely feel it. I wished I could sense this magic strongly like she had; it would make the task much easier, but I already knew where I was going to start my search, thanks to Draco’s sketch: the Room of Requirement. In the sketch he’d given me the last time I’d seen him, he’d shown me outside the Room of Requirement destroying a crown.

“Yes. It’s the most evil type of magic there is. The act of making these damaged Tom, turning him into the monster he is today. I don’t want knowledge of these items getting out. I have done my best to remove all record of them from the school, so that no one stumbles upon this magic again and tries to duplicate it. It’s time. Open it, Harry,” he instructed.

Something in me knew what he meant. I remembered not being able to open it physically the summer before. We’d all tried, but no one could do it. But now that I knew it had belonged to Salazar Slytherin, I knew it opened the same way as the chamber of secrets. I said in Parseltongue, “Open,” and it did as I commanded.

It was like the Diary, but different. A shade of Lord Voldemort materialized and said, “Don’t listen to this old fool, Harry. He is using you. Join me. We could be great, you know. You have great power inside you. Join me and rule this world at my side.”

“Do it now, Harry! Don’t listen to it!” Dumbledore yelled at the same time, voice rising over the shade.

I did as instructed and plunged the sword through the locket. The shade screamed and then dissipated.

Dumbledore came to stand by my side, clapping his hand on my shoulder. “Excellent work, my boy. Well done.”

“Sir? Can I talk to you about something?” I asked, laying the sword down on the desk.

“What is it, my boy?”

“Draco Malfoy. We sort of did something…” I trailed off, not knowing how to talk about sex with an adult.

“Narcissa Malfoy informed me that she discovered your marriage to her son a few weeks ago. I must say, I wasn’t expecting that one, but young love is like that,” he said.

“She said she won’t let me see him until the war is over. But if we’re married and I’m his husband, isn’t there something I can do?” I asked desperately. I’d been waiting so long to see him that I couldn’t bear the idea of not being able to see him until after the war.

“There is, but it’s best if you don’t. You’ve placed the Malfoy boy in extreme danger as it is. He can’t defend himself without his voice to command his magic. If you wish him to survive the coming war, the best thing for it is to leave him in hiding with his mother. She’ll take care of him and keep him safe for you,” Dumbledore answered.

I wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t want to put Draco in any more danger than he was already in. I agreed to leave him alone for the time being and return to the Weasleys for the rest of the summer.

* * *

It took me forever to figure out how to get the Room of Requirement to show me the right room. So long, that Ron, Hermione, and I had in the meantime done a complete and thorough search of the Chamber of Secrets, the dungeons, and all of Slytherin house, just in case Voldemort hadn’t left the last Horcrux in the Room of Requirement. But then I’d had a duel in the corridor with Vincent Crabbe and used a spell I’d learned from the Half-Blood Prince’s potion book. That spell nearly made me a murderer, but Snape appeared and saved Crabbe’s life just in time. Snape knew I had gotten the spell from a potions book, so I had to hide the Prince’s book. I’d done so in the Room of Requirement and found the Room of Hidden Things. In my panic, I’d gone right past the Horcrux twice and was about to leave, when I noticed the Tiara. It wasn’t a crown and bore little resemblance to Draco’s drawing, other than it was also a fancy metal head adornment, but something made me go back and pick it up. Then I’d felt the familiar dark magic, heavy and cloying, just like the locket.

I took the tiara to Dumbledore immediately, not even bothering to return to Snape with a potions book as ordered. Snape came to me in Dumbledore’s office, moments after I’d driven the Sword of Gryffindor into the Tiara.

“What is the meaning of this, Headmaster?” Snape asked Professor Dumbledore.

“Harry found the missing Horcrux. Soon Tom Riddle will be mortal again,” Dumbledore replied.

“Did he now? And what of the boy he almost killed, who I just took to the Infirmary?” Snape asked in a dry scathing tone.

“Did he now?” Dumbledore asked, eyes shifting from twinkling to flat and facial features shifting from pride to disappointment.

Snape relayed what I’d done to Crabbe and Dumbledore sent a message off to McGonagall to join them in deciding my punishment. When she arrived, I was sent down the moving stairs to wait in the corridor while they decided my fate. I waited there practically forever, before I was called back up to the Headmaster’s office. Snape wasn’t happy with my punishment, because I wasn’t being expelled. Instead I was given detention every day for the rest of my life, however long I decided to stay at Hogwarts.

Then McGonagall and Snape left and I remained with Dumbledore.

“Sir?” I asked the headmaster, when my professors had left.

“Harry, you have disappointed me greatly and made me the proudest wizard alive all in the span of an hour. I do not want you to think you are being rewarded for your attack on Vincent Crabbe. Make no mistake about it: what you did was wrong. What you did would have even been wrong if Vincent Crabbe was a Death Eater. As it is, after your stunt possessing Tom at the beginning of the summer, the Crabbe family came to me seeking asylum and I granted it. Vincent spent the summer crammed into a safe-house with the Parkinson and Goyle families. It seems they were scared for their lives after the Dark Lord threatened them by name.”

“Um, yeah, that was, er, me…” I admitted.

“Yes, I am aware. Your stunt cost the Dark Lord almost all of his most loyal followers. Your possession of Tom was seen as a sign of weakness on his part and strength on your part. Everyone there never returned to his service, with the exception of Bellatrix Lestrange, who has his child. What’s more, is that with the help of the Malfoys, we have found and destroyed five of Tom’s seven Horcruxes.”

“Seven? I thought it was only six; just the snake. You said he was saving the last for killing me,” I replied.

“Ah, I was getting to that. I fear he accidentally created the seventh Horcrux that night. The tattered shreds of his soul became unstable from the creation of the first six Horcruxes. Then he killed your parents and ripped his soul again. A piece of him broke off and latched itself onto you, my dear boy,” as he said this part, he raised his good hand and pointed to my scar. “That scar, Harry, is a dark curse. The Darkest and most Evil of things. You, my boy, are the last Horcrux.”

I swallowed the lump in my suddenly dry throat. “Then I have to die,” I said, thoughts whirling around my head. I’d never get to live a normal life, free of that monster. I was tainted. No wonder I’d almost killed Crabbe, with that murderer latched to my head since I was a baby. It had corrupted me. I was no good. It was better off that I killed myself so as to not harm those around me. My dreams of a life with Draco were almost laughable now: he was in a weakened state and far too vulnerable to be anywhere near me.

“I’m afraid so. But, you won’t be dying alone. I will go with you, Harry. I will kill the snake and you, you walk right up to Riddle unarmed and let Him do the deed. That’s important, I think. Let Him kill His own final Horcrux. I should think that will end it; end Him,” he said.

“Sir, will you look after Draco when I’m gone? See that he gets Grimmauld Place and access to my vaults?” I asked, still wanting to provide for my husband, no matter how short a time we’d been together.

“No. I suspect Bellatrix will take me out, while I am dealing with the snake. I will have a will drawn up for you before we go. But even if you die without a will, your marriage to Draco is legally binding, so all of your assets will go to him and any children the two of you have produced by default,” he replied.

I felt a pang of grief for the future I’d never have. I’d never get a chance to have a child with Draco. Those images he’d drawn of black haired potter babies and the little blond thing in his arms would never be. Instead of voicing these feelings, I nodded and moved on to the other issue. “But sir, isn’t there a way you could survive? The world will need a leader when we’re gone. Someone to make sure it’s done,” I said, worried there was a chance that Voldemort would still be alive after I was dead.

“I should hope not, Harry, I’m dying already,” he said, holding out his blackened hand to me.

“You never did tell me what happened to your hand with the ring,” I replied, wondering about it now.

“I was foolish. I saw the ring and my old eagerness returned to me. I reached out, thinking only of getting to see my dear sister again, not caring of the deadly enchantments guarding it,” he said.

I didn’t understand. “Sir?” I asked.

“The ring, you see, contains the Peverell Stone. It’s ancient and very powerful. Together with two other relics, they make up the Deathly Hallows. It’s old magic, recorded only in a children’s fairy tale passed on from ancient times. The first Hallow is my wand. I won it off of Grindelwald, who stole it and murdered the previous owner in his quest for power. The second, is the stone in this ring. The third, is your cloak, passed down from your father and his father before him, going back since before the foundation of Hogwarts. No other cloak is like it; no other so perfect and flawless. The wand and the ring are dangerous. It was my hope that by wielding the wand myself without abusing its power, that its curse would die with me. But I am still just a man. I fell for the lure of the stone; of seeing my sister again. But it was hollow. The dead can never be brought back, Harry, not truly. Please do not keep these items after I am gone. I will give them to you now, in the hope that they will help you defeat Tom. But please, I am begging you, do not keep them. I’ve order Professor Snape to destroy them when this is over and we are both gone.”

“Professor Snape?” I asked.

“Yes, Professor Snape. He’ll know when we go. I’ve task him with locating the baby and the midwife hired to take care of it. They are innocent. I want them spared. Professor Snape will protect them. Then when the fighting is over, he will clean up the mess. He will snap this cursed wand. I only hope he does not succumb to the power of the ring, as I have. It’s the lure of the dead, you see, Harry. You have lost just as greatly as we have. You would be just as tempted as we. But at least with the stone, it only destroys the one using it. It’s not like the wand that kills more than just the wielder,” he explained.

And that was how it was, the following day. After I sign my will, leaving everything to Draco, we switched wands. I tucked Dumbledore’s wand into my holster and the ring into my pocket with my cloak. Using my wand Dumbledore side-along apparated me to Malfoy Manor, while Snape apparated separately. Snape went around the back to locate the baby and wet nurse. The headmaster and I went in the front. Voldemort, Bellatrix, and Nagini came out of the house and met us on the front step.

Dumbledore sliced clean through Nagini with the Sword of Gryffindor, while I, wand-less, faced off with Voldemort. Bellatrix took Dumbledore out with an Avada Kedavra. Voldemort cast the same at me, gleeful that I’d come to him without a wand out.

Then I was alone in King’s Cross Station, save for a pitiful dying thing. After a time, my parents and Sirius came to me. The three of them explained that the pitiful thing was the part of Voldemort that had latched onto me and it was dying. The real Voldemort, however, was still alive. I was the master of death, thanks to the three Deathly Hallows on my person, which meant that I could choose to go back and finish off Voldemort.

I chose to go back to Draco. I came to on the lawn, a meter away from Bellatrix Lestrange crying over Voldemort’s prone body. Voldemort came back about when I did. He quickly rose to his feet and shrugged Bellatrix off. I pulled out Dumbledore’s wand as Voldemort took one large stride over to where I lay. I looked up at him as he looked down at me. Then he was casting and I cast the first spell that came to me: Expelliarmus. I was faster. My spell hit him in the same millisecond that he got out the last of the killing curse. The curse left his wand, but his wand was already spinning in the air, pointing down at himself. His curse backfired and killed him.

Bellatrix was frozen in horror at the death of her lover. In that instant, I disarmed her. She lunged at me, mad with grief and ready to fight Muggle. I ran. I didn’t want to have to kill her too. I’d done enough. Crabbe was still in the hospital wing, for Merlin’s sake. I wasn’t prepared to tear my soul and turn myself into a monster. I ran as fast as I could, like I had in the days when Dudley was chasing me. And as I ran, it occurred to me that I had three wands, but none of them were my own. My wand was in Dumbledore’s wand holder; he’d used it to side-along Apparate me here. As I ran, without skipping a step, I used Dumbledore’s wand and cast, “Accio my wand!”

I caught my wand as I ran. I looked over my shoulder to see that Bellatrix was behind me, chasing me as fast as she could. I didn’t know what to do, but there were two ideas in my head, both of which involved entering the house. One, Snape was inside rescuing the baby. He could save me from Bellatrix. And two, it was a big house with lots of places to hide and many escape routes. I ran into the house.

The moment I crossed the threshold, Lucius Malfoy apparated onto the doorstep, his wand in hand. I didn’t even know he was out of Azkaban, much less home, but here he was. The only problem was that I didn’t know whose side he was on. I slammed the door shut and ran up the stairs. I went up to the top floor and then into a bathroom that looked out at the front porch. There was a good sized window which I opened, in order to listen in on the pair below.

Bellatrix Lestrange was still outside, sobbing hysterically in Lucius Malfoy’s arms. Lucius still had his wand out, gripped tightly against Bellatrix’s back, as he soothed her.

“I know, Bella. It’s not the way I wanted it either. I know,” Lucius was saying.

“But what are we going to do, Lucius!?! Our Lord is dead! And the Potter brat won!” she wailed.

“We will do the only thing we can do: deal with it. You have little Delphini in there. You have to be strong for her. We’ll tell them our Lord raped you, that you weren’t willing. You were one of only two female Death Eaters and he took advantage of you, after murdering your husband. You were a victim.”

Bellatrix interrupted Lucius, shouting out, “No! That’s not how it happened!”

“Shhush. I know, Bella. I know. But it’s the only way. You have to be there for your daughter, to help bring her up. She’s all that there is left of our dear Lord. It’s over for now, but Delphi is still part of Him. She is our only hope. Think of Delphi,” Lucius replied.

This seemed to convince Bellatrix, because her shoulders sagged and she nodded into Lucius’ chest.

It was then that Professor Snape found me. He was alone and had neither the baby nor the wet nurse he was supposed to be locating. I held a finger to my lips, to indicate that we were in danger of being heard from below. Snape gripped my arm and side along apparated me away.

I arrived in a strange country. There were rolling hills covered in rows of crops in the distance.

“Where are we?” I asked, worried Snape was truly a triple spy, working for the other side all along. Why had he brought me here?

“Malfoy Vineyard. Draco is here. I’ve brought you to him,” Snape answered, walking towards an old manor house. He didn’t wait for me to follow; he just strode quickly into the house.

I rushed to keep up. “But what about Bellatrix and Lucius?” I asked, as the front door closed behind me.

Narcissa Malfoy was there, holding a black haired baby girl in her arms.

“Lucius has agreed to take Bellatrix in. When he’s done talking her down, he will take her to the Ministry to speak with the Aurors,” Snape answered.

“But Lucius was coaxing her to lie! He wants to turn the baby into the next dark lord!” I exclaimed as quietly as I could, trying not to be too loud, because there was a baby in the room.

“My husband has already ensured that the ceaseless wizarding wars will stop. He has betrothed this little girl to Draco’s first born son. Your first born son, Harry. Your lines will fuze and this feud will end,” Narcissa said, bouncing the baby in her arms.

“My child? Draco and I haven’t even had a child yet! What makes you think I’ll agree to this absurd plan and even conceive a child with Draco, after this?” I asked, upset. How could they do something like this without even consulting me?

“As a matter of fact, you have, Harry. Scorpius is upstairs with Draco right now. I did inform you that with potions, wizards can become pregnant. You impregnated my son during the first week of summer holidays last year and he has been unable to return to school this year because of it. Scorpius is two months old, only three months younger than this little lady. They will grow up together. You are free to be involved as much as you like. You can ensure that Delphi turns into the type of witch you would be proud for your son to marry,” Narcissa said.

“No, there’s no way. Draco would’ve told me!” I protested, knowing that Draco’s owls had fallen off two months ago. I hadn’t received a single drawing from him since.

“Draco did tell you. He showed me the cartoon he was sending you. It clearly showed a Potter baby growing inside him. That was drawn the day I discovered Draco was pregnant. I ordered Draco to tell you, so he drew it. I would’ve written you personally and informed you of your mistake, but Albus Dumbledore ordered me not to. He said it was safer for all involved to wait until the Dark Lord was dead to let that knowledge out,” Narcissa replied.

“As touching as this all is, Albus is lying dead at Malfoy Manor and I’d like to check on that situation,” Snape interrupted. “Can we move this ahead to where you, Mr. Potter, go upstairs to see Draco and meet your son? I am particularly fond of Scorpius’ green eyes. He has Lily’s eyes.”

“Alright,” I agreed, the lure too much to continue my argument with Narcissa.

I still wasn’t comfortable with the situation with Bellatrix, Lucius, and baby Delphi, but in the back of my mind were the memories Dumbledore had shown me of the orphanage where Voldemort had grown up. The worst possible scenario would be for Delphi to grow up the same, unloved, and turn into a monster. If the Malfoys were committed to raising her and loving her, then maybe she wouldn’t turn out like her father.

“This way,” Snape said, leading me up the stairs.

I followed Snape, right up to a bedroom door. Snape knocked, waited half a minute, then cracked the door open and motioned for me to go inside, but didn’t move to go inside himself.

“Is this a trap?” I asked, wary.

“No, you idiot. Draco is nursing your son. I do not wish to see a former student of mine in a state of undress. You are married to him. You are free to see him in a compromising situation. Go in and meet your son, unless you’d rather accompany me to the Ministry and then back to Malfoy Manor,” Snape said.

I glanced down at the two wands in my hand. I shuffled Dumbledore's wand into my wand holster and moved my own wand into my right hand, before warily peeking my head into the cracked open door. I knew instantly that Snape was telling the truth: Draco was in a bed, propped up against pillows piled against the headboard, a bundle of blankets held to his chest. Little tiny baby feet were poking out of the blanket.

I put my wand away and stepped into the room fully, closing the door behind me. Draco smiled at me and motioned me towards him. I went, returning his smile. When I reached the bed, he pulled the blanket back, revealing a pointy faced baby, exactly as he had drawn. On the day Narcissa had discovered the pregnancy, she must’ve performed a spell to show what the unborn child would look like; the coincidence was just too much for any other explanation.

“Scorpius?” I asked, reaching a hand out to stroke the soft strands of black hair.

Draco nodded.

“That transforming potion you took allowed you to get pregnant?” I asked, wanting confirmation that there wasn’t a second potion involved.

He nodded again.

“Will you change back, when you stop breast feeding?” I asked, eyeing his breasts. They were larger than ever.

He shook his head.

“Is the potion permanent?” I asked, concerned.

He nodded.

“Did you know it would be?”

He nodded once more. 

“This wasn’t an accident?” I asked another.

He shook his head.

“Did you want this?” I asked, my understanding of what had happened shifting in my brain. Suddenly it seemed that everything that had happened had happened differently from how I’d thought it had.

He nodded and reached his left hand out to mine, entwining our fingers so that our wedding rings were together.

“You married me and got pregnant with my baby, without telling me what we were doing?” I asked, beginning to feel taken advantage of.

His features turned into a scowl at that. I wished then that he could talk, because there was clearly a miss-communication.

“You didn’t know that I didn’t know?” I asked, guessing.

My guess must’ve been right, because he nodded and the scowl dropped from his face. Then he adjusted the baby, removing Scorpius from his nipple, tucking his breast back into his shirt, and shifting our child into one arm, before standing up. He closed the distance between us, used his free hand to move my arm into the position he wanted, and then slid our boy into my arms.

It felt right to have this warm body held against my chest. My face began to hurt with how wide I was smiling. I’d always wanted a family and now I had one. I may not like that this had been kept from me, but that wasn’t Draco’s fault. Draco had tried to tell me in a drawing and I hadn’t understood.

“Are you any better, Draco? Have you relearned any of it?” I asked, wondering how much I would have to compensate for when it came to our son. If only one of Scorpius’ parents could tell our child we loved him, then I’d have to say it twice as much.

He nodded, then pulled out his wand and began to cast wordlessly, starting with Nox, then Lumos, and then moving through dozens of common spells. He did it with such ease that I thought that if he’d gone back to school this year, he would’ve bested me in Defense Against the Dark Arts, because this year had been almost entirely focused on wordless dueling.

“Good. What about reading?” I asked.

He nodded and summoned a book, before throwing it onto his bed.

“And writing?” I asked.

He made a gesture that was unclear. Then he pinched his index finger to his thumb, as if to say, “A little bit.”

“Oh. And you can’t talk at all, still?” I asked to make sure.

He shook his head and then began to talk with his hands, like a deaf Muggle.

“Is that sign language?” I asked.

He nodded.

That gave me hope for our future that he had a way of speaking, but at the same time, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to pick this new language up and that I’d never be able to talk to my husband. Would I hold him back, when he could be with someone who already knew how to speak sign language?

I must’ve been thinking too hard, because he flicked me on my forehead, between my furrowed brows.

“Sorry,” I said.

He Accioed a drawing tablet and pencil, sat down on his bed, and began to draw. I sat down next to him and watched. He didn’t put in the detail he usually did when he was sending me letters, only making the quickest sketches. The first one had one word drawn at the top in big block letters: Future. In it, we were together, in love, arms wrapped around each other. Running around us were children. There was the little black haired green eyed pointy faced Scorpius, but he was older than in any of the previous drawings. There were three other children running around with Scorpius. One was a black haired brown eyed little girl, the same height as Scorpius, who didn’t look like me or Draco. The other two children were shorter, indicating they were younger. There was a blond boy running after the other two and then a blond girl, crawling along behind him. The two blonds were pointy in the face, indicating they were our children. I guessed the little black haired girl might be Delphi, the baby Narcissa was caring for downstairs.

“Do you know about Delphi, then?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Did you know that your parents plan on betrothing her to our son? Our precious Scorpius?” I asked, hugging the sleeping bundle to my chest.

He nodded and then furrowed his brows.

“And you’re okay with it?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Did you plan it?” I asked, wondering if I should be mad at him or his parents.

He turned his palms up, as if to say he wasn’t capable of being at fault for the situation.

“You didn’t plan it with your parents?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Did you tell your parents to butt out?” I asked.

He sighed in exasperation. Then he turned the page and began to draw a new picture. In this one, cartoon Draco was signing to cartoon Narcissa, but she had her hands palm up and her shoulders raised in a shrug, as if she didn’t know what he was saying. Then Draco drew a third figure, a witch, who signed back to him.

“Your mum doesn’t understand sign?” I asked. If this was the case, then it would be difficult for Draco to be involved with his parents’ scheming.

He nodded emphatically and pointed to the unfamiliar female cartoon.

“You have a sign teacher?” I asked.

He nodded again.

“Can she teach me too?” I asked hopefully.

He nodded and then turned the page to begin a new sketch. In this one, Scorpius and Delphi were both babies in Narcissa’s arms and Draco and I were in a room on the floor above, naked and entwined. Lastly, he added block letters that spelled out the word, “Now.”

“You want to have sex right now?” I asked, looking down at the perfect sleeping child in my arms. I wasn’t quite ready to give Scorpius up, but I was tempted by the promise of Draco’s body.

He nodded and then flipped to the last page of the sketchbook, where there was already a drawing. It was of my penis and it took up the entire page. It was the most detailed sketch I’d ever seen, with so much perfectly detailed shading, it almost look real, except that he’d grossly exaggerated my width.

“What the!?! Why do you have that just lying around? Your mum could find it!” I exclaimed in shock.

He rolled his eyes. Then he gave a longing look to his sketch.

“You really want some cock, don’t you?” I asked, starting to think about things from his perspective. He was still a horny teenager and most days probably couldn’t even manage the time for a decent wank with taking care of our son.

He nodded.

I reached my free hand out to touch his cheek and said, “We’ll have sex tonight, I promise.”

He nodded. Then he cast a wordless privacy spell on the sketch and suddenly it looked like the page had been colored one solid flesh tone, no penis visible. Finally, he flipped through the pages until he was on the first blank page in the sketch book.

“We’ll wait until Scorpius is down for the night. I’m not sure I trust your mum with him. She could marry him to Delphi while we’re busy,” I said.

He rolled his eyes.

“There’s something I’ve been wondering about,” I said, changing the subject. “How did you know about the crown in the Room of Requirement?” I probably would’ve never found that Horcrux if he hadn’t given me that cartoon.

He flipped the page of his sketch book and began to draw a familiar scene. He’d drawn this once before, last summer when he was in hospital. His figured lay prone on the floor of Malfoy Manor, red Xs for eyes, Voldemort above him, cursing him. But this time, he drew a thought bubble connected to cartoon Draco’s head. The thought bubble played a complex scene that was basically the same as the comic he’d given me last summer. The scene started with me stomping on the crown outside the room of requirement and ended with our little family together and happy.

“You saw it when you were being cursed?” I asked, wondering if he’d had a psychic vision.

He nodded. Then he tucked his pencil and pad in his pocket and moved to the door, stopping to motion me to follow him, ending our discussion of Horcruxes and visions.

I followed him through a corridor, into a playroom, where we found Narcissa and Delphi. Delphi was scared and clung to Narcissa, while Narcissa showed the child a toy. Draco waved hello to his mum and cousin. I sat down in the rocking chair with Scorpius.

Draco sat at my feet and began to draw. This time he drew both of his parents with Delphi and he and I with Scorpius, the lot of us with happy smiling faces. Both babies were their current size, indicating that he wanted this to happen soon. When he was done, he walked the pad over to Narcissa and showed her.

“That’s very nice, Draco. Your father will come home soon and then we can make that happen. We’ll all be one big happy family. I’ve always wanted a daughter. Delphi will fit right in, you’ll see,” Narcissa said.

“Seems to me like the lot of you have been being a happy family without me,” I commented dryly. I wasn’t upset with Draco for this, but the idea that Lucius and Bellatrix had probably been here while I was excluded pissed me off.

“Not entirely. It’s been very hard for Draco and I to be in seclusion with Scorpius. I’ve left to arrange things with Lucius and I’ve exchanged letters with Bella, promising to be the godmother to my niece here and help raise her if necessary, but this is the first I’ve gotten to hold Delphi in person. I miss Lucius horribly,” Narcissa replied. If what she said was true, then neither Lucius nor Bellatrix had been here, which mollified me slightly. But I was still suspicious of her, if only for the fact that she still seemed to be on good terms with her evil sister and her awful husband.

“So Lucius hasn’t been living here with you?” I asked accusingly.

“No, he has not. He has only been out of prison for a week. I’ve only had two short meetings with him. We couldn’t risk anyone coming here, besides Severus and Draco’s tutors. We’ve been isolated for the better part of a year. This is the first I am seeing my niece in person,” she answered.

The baby in my arms woke up then and I saw a flash of green eyes, before those eyes scrunched up and he started crying. I put Scorpius on my shoulder and started patting, but I’d never done this before and I wasn’t sure what my son wanted. When Draco reached out for the baby, I was all too eager to hand the child off, giving up the rocking chair I’d been sitting on as well.

Draco took my spot on the rocking chair and covered himself and our baby in a blanket. I couldn’t see what he was doing after that.

“Scorpius is probably hungry again. He has tummy problems. He eats constantly,” Narcissa explained, Delphi starting to whine in her own arms. “Delphi, are you hungry too?” The last was asked to the older baby.

“What does Delphi eat?” I asked.

“She has been nursed by a wet nurse. But it wouldn’t be safe to let someone who worked for my sister in here and I was not expecting to be brought Delphi today. For now, I’ll have our elf mix up dehydrated goat milk powder,” Narcissa answered, before calling an elf name Dotty to do just that.

The bottle was soon ready, but Delphi didn’t take to it right away. She fussed and cried and turned her head this way and that. She was full out howling before she gave in and tried the bottle.

Either Scorpius finished eating on his own, or the racket coming from the other baby disturbed him, because he and Draco emerged from under the blanket. Draco started playing a silent game of peek-a-boo with our son and Scorpius laughed, a high tinkling sound. It was beautiful.

I stood beside Draco and watched in awe as he played with our son.

That is what we were doing when Professor Snape returned, this time with Lucius Malfoy. As soon as I heard the front door open, quickly followed by their voices, I tensed up and ran into the hallway and then down the stairs to meet them, with my wand drawn.

“Hello, son,” Lucius Malfoy greeted me.

“Mr. Potter,” Snape greeted me.

“I heard you scheming with Bellatrix,” I accused Lucius.

“Yes, I schemed to convince her to turn herself in. She is in Auror custody now, without any casualties,” he replied.

“Bellatrix Lestrange is in jail?” I asked, looking at Professor Snape.

“Yes, she is. Lucius brought her in. The Aurors have moved Albus’ and the Dark Lord’s bodies to the Ministry morgue. The only thing left to do is to destroy Dumbledore’s wand like he wanted,” Snape replied.

I nodded, to indicate that destroying the wand was fine with me, but I didn’t want to do it right now, not in front of Lucius when I didn’t trust him. “Why did they let you go, Lucius? Last I heard, you were serving a lengthy prison sentence. Why aren’t you in Azkaban?” I asked.

“Full pardon, thanks to the Minister for Magic. You see, it has come to the Minister’s attention that I have been acting as a spy all along and even arranged for my only son and heir to marry and bear a child for you, Harry Potter. A true Death Eater would never do such things. It wouldn’t do to lock the Chosen One’s father-in-law up over a simple misunderstanding, so I was released last week. Just in time too, because I was needed to deal with my sister-in-law,” Lucius explained.

I face palmed, because I couldn’t believe that my own actions with Draco Malfoy had been misconstrued into a lie about Lucius being innocent. “My being with Draco has nothing to do with you, Lucius. You’re still a bloody bastard and you belong in prison,” I insisted.

“Please, son, do not speak that way in our family home. My parents were married in a very public ceremony before I was conceived,” Lucius replied. At the mention of his parents, he indicated two large pale-faced blond portraits on the wall. The wizard was as pointy as Lucius and had the same shade of blond hair. The witch had Lucius and Draco’s pale gray eyes. The portraits waved to me.

“Fine, but I heard you talking to Bellatrix. I know what you are planning!” I accused.

“Harry, son, I said what I had to say to convince Bella to turn herself in without a fight. I stopped her from chasing you and took her to the Ministry. You should be thanking me,” he replied.

“You mean to tell me that you didn’t mean what you said to her about Delphi being the next dark lord?” I asked accusingly.

Lucius shrugged. “I certainly won’t be taking responsibility for the child’s teaching. I will leave it to you and my son to choose the tutors and philosophies the children will be taught. If you choose to encourage her to follow in her father’s footsteps, then let it be. Otherwise, I understand. I chose to back a madman. I did not know it at the time, but I do now. My son almost died for my mistake and will be forever without his voice. I cannot possibly make up for all the wrong decisions I have made. But my son, Draco, has been Lord Malfoy for almost a year now and he has done a much better job of it than I. I will leave him in charge and take my orders from him,” Lucius said.

“You aren’t upset that your precious Lord died today?” I asked pointedly.

“I watched from the foyer as you did it and I stopped Bella from chasing you. I would think that my actions speak for themselves. But if you must hear it, then let me say it clearly: I was wrong. I should have never supported the Dark Lord Voldemort. It is the single worst decision I have ever made. I am glad he is dead and that I can be reunited with my family now. I have never even met my grandson--only seen a picture--I would very much like to go upstairs to meet him and be reunited with my wife and son, who I love dearly. Will that do? Can I go upstairs in my own home now?” Lucius asked me.

“I don’t trust you,” I answered, not moving an inch.

“Take his wand if you must, Potter, but I grow tired of this little family rift. I would like to see my godson and then go myself. I’ve had a long day,” Professor Snape interjected.

“Alright. Your wand, Lucius,” I said, left hand out.

Lucius handed it over, but didn’t look happy about it.

I added Lucius wand to the collection in my holster.

“Mr. Potter, I believe I see Albus’ wand in there. I really must insist that it be destroyed now. We don’t want a relic that powerful falling into the wrong hands,” Snape said, eyeing one wand in particular inside my holster.

I nodded and retrieved the wand in question. I held it up and snapped it in two. Then I said, “Here you go,” and held the pieces out to Professor Snape, who pocketed them.

“Thank you. Now let’s go upstairs,” Snape said and moved to do just that.

Snape went first, followed by Lucius, and I brought up the rear.

Draco carrying Scorpius and Narcissa carrying Delphi, were standing in the playroom doorway, clearly having listened to our exchange.

Lucius went to Narcissa first, arms open, and hugged his wife and niece. “I’ve missed you,” he said, kissing her hair.

“I’ve missed you too,” Narcissa replied, with a look on her face that indicated that she was still very much in love with this man.

When Lucius pulled away, Delphi clung to him with tiny fists. When Narcissa tried to dislodge the child from Lucius’ robes, Delphi let out a cry of protest.

“Here, let me take her. I’ve been spending a lot of time with her in the nursery this past week,” Lucius said, shifting the little girl into his arms in a paternal way.

Narcissa nodded and let Delphi go, saying, “You’re probably the only one she knows here.”

“Not for long, but I’ll enjoy the hugs while they last,” Lucius said and then stepped over to Draco and Scorpius. “Draco, I have missed you so much, son. You’ve done well in my absence. I am so proud of you.” Then he used his free arm to hug Draco.

Draco nodded, tears of joy in his eyes.

When Lucius pulled away, his gaze shifted from Draco’s face to the child in Draco’s arms. “Is this my grandson?” he asked and Draco nodded. “He’s perfect. I would very much like to hold him, but I’m afraid my newly adopted daughter just lost both of her parents and her wet nurse today. Would it be alright if I wait to hold him until after she goes to sleep?”

Draco nodded. Then he stepped into the playroom and motioned for Lucius to follow him.

Everyone went into the playroom, including Professor Snape.

“Draco, might I hold my godson, before I have to leave?” Snape asked.

Draco nodded and handed our son over to my least favorite professor. Snape sat in the rocking chair with the baby, a large goofy smile on his face. I’d never seen him smile like that and it was creepy.

“Seeing these eyes make a hard day worth it,” Snape said.

Scorpius cooed and smiled at Snape.

“My son is your godson?” I asked, it just now clicking what he’d said. If I had to guess which male in this room was Snape’s godson, I would’ve guessed Draco, not my Scorpius.

“Yes,” Snape answered, not looking up from the baby in his arms.

I looked to Draco, who nodded eagerly.

“You chose your head of house to be our son’s godfather?” I asked pointedly.

Draco nodded, smiling as if to indicate that he was pleased with this decision. It was difficult to hold a conversation with him, because I didn’t speak sign, so I decided to bite my tongue. This wasn’t the type of thing I wanted to get into in front of his parents.

After a few minutes, Snape handed Scorpius back to Draco and left. Then Narcissa announced it was time to get the babies ready for bed. She and Lucius took Delphi into the master bedroom to do just that.

Draco took Scorpius into a loo and I followed. I looked over Draco’s shoulder as Scorpius was undressed on a changing table. Scorpius started pooping the moment his diaper was open. Draco reacted swiftly, removing the old clothing out of the way and grabbing a clean prefold from the shelf above him. He seemed to know what was coming, because just as the first diaper was about to overflow with diarrhea, Draco switch the first prefold for the clean one and let Scorpius continue.

“Is this what your mum meant by Scorpius having tummy problems?” I asked, wondering if massive diarrhea like this was a regular occurrence.

Draco nodded and began to clean up the mess. It was all contained to two prefolds and an underlying flat diaper. I found it impressive that what should’ve been a massive blow-out had been contained. Draco was good at this parenting thing.

Draco took Scorpius to the sink to bathe, before taking the child to a bedroom, the same one Snape had first led me to in this house where I’d first met Scorpius, to dress. Draco changed into pajamas as well and laid down with Scorpius to nurse.

It occurred to me then that I was too dirty to crawl into bed with my husband and son. I was sweaty from running from Bellatrix and covered in dirt from falling on the lawn when Voldemort hit me with the killing curse. So I asked Draco if it would be alright to take a bath and he nodded.

Thanks to an elf, clean night clothes appeared on the counter while I bathed.

I completely forgot about the ring with the stone until I stepped out of the bath and saw that it’d fallen out of my pocket and onto the floor. Dumbledore had wanted it destroyed and had warned against the lure of the dead. Part of me did want to speak to those I had lost, but I decided against it, not wanting to do anything that might cost me my future with Draco and our son. I didn’t know if it was safe, or if using it might turn my hand black and lead to my own slow, painful death. And most importantly, I didn’t want to bring that kind of darkness into the house where Draco lived with our son. Ultimately, I vanished the ring. With any luck, it would never again turn up to harm anyone.

With the ring gone and myself freshly cleaned, I dressed and then returned to the room where Draco was lying down, Scorpius in a cradle adjacent to the bed.

I lied down next to Draco and he was on me instantly, straddling me fully clothed and kissing me. We made out like that until we were both hot and bothered, his parents’ presence in the house forgotten. We made love in that bed that night. Draco was insatiable, wanting me over and over again, waking me up all night long for another round. Everything felt so right and I felt like I was home here in Draco’s arms.

* * *

The following day I spent there in France by Draco’s side as he attempted to keep to his routine. Scorpius had to be nursed almost constantly. When our son wasn’t eating, he was mostly sleeping or pooping, with the occasional short awake period in which we could play with him. On top of dealing with Scorpius, Draco had two separate tutors to meet with. The first tutor taught him wordless magic, which Draco performed one handed, his other hand holding a nursing Scorpius to his chest. The second tutor taught him sign, while Scorpius was down for his longest nap of the day.

I wanted to learn sign, so that I could speak to my husband, so I sat in on the sign lesson and gave the sign tutor my full attention. To my surprise, Lucius did the same, saying only that he wished to speak to his son and family head again. Lucius even seemed to be picking it up faster than me, which pissed me off a bit. I had a competitive streak and I wanted to best Lucius at communicating with Draco, so I vowed to try my hardest. But no matter how hard I tried, Lucius seemed to have a natural knack for picking up the new language.

At the end of the tutoring season, I felt like a stupid useless retard and I was angry at Lucius for upstaging me.

“Is this your second language, Harry?” Lucius asked meas we stood at the top of the stair landing, watching the tutor walk out the front door and Apparate away.

“Yes,” I spat out, through clenched teeth.

“Don’t fret so much. The second language is always the hardest to learn. This sign language feels a lot like French to me, which I learned as a young child. That’s why it’s easier for me to pick up. That, and I had some practice with my great grandmother. Before she died, she lost her hearing completely. I only learned a handful of signs then, but it helps. Because you have never been exposed to sign or French, it is understandable that you are struggling to pick it up. I applaud your effort. I think it’s admirable that you wish to speak to my son. Though it would probably be better to get you your own tutor to teach you the basics,” Lucius said.

I grumbled to myself and didn’t give an audible response. Lucius was being decent at a time when I didn’t feel like dealing with a decent Lucius. I would’ve preferred he act like a pompous git, so I could curse him or even duel him. A duel would feel good right about now.

Draco was the one to respond to Lucius, signing with the thumb of his open hand placed to his chin.

“Your mother is bonding with Delphi. The lactation potion has taken effect and her milk has come in, so now the two of them need to establish the flow,” Lucius told Draco.

Narcissa and baby Delphi had been absence from lunch and because Draco and I had taken breakfast in bed, we hadn’t seen either of them since the night before. This statement from Lucius explained why.

“Ew,” I replied, scrunching up my face in disgust. I didn’t want to think of my mother-in-law in that way, plus it seemed gross to nurse someone else’s baby, especially when the lactation was induced by a potion.

“Babies need their milk. Powdered goat milk will suffice in a pinch, but even adoptive mothers should nurse. Narcissa is taking to it wonderfully. We always wanted another child. I’m glad for her that she finally has a little girl to dote upon,” Lucius replied.

“If you wanted more children, then you should’ve had them,” I said, thinking that Draco might not have been so stuck up and spoiled rotten, if he’d had a little sister.

“We couldn’t. It was difficult enough for us to produce the one living child. A second just wasn’t in our cards,” Lucius said.

I wanted to know more, but Draco placed his hand on my elbow to get my attention. Once he had it, he made a motion with his chin, pointing down the stairs. I figured he wanted me to go downstairs with him, so I let him lead the way, leaving Lucius on the second floor.

Draco led me to the front door, moments before someone knocked on it from the outside. Draco answered it and revealed Professor Snape. Draco motioned for Snape to come in and follow to the main drawing room, off of the entrance hall, where Draco and I sat on a sofa. Snape took the armchair. Then Draco snapped his fingers and an elf appeared with a tea tray, which was sat down on the end table. Draco poured tea for the three of us.

“Mr. Potter, all of Wizarding Britain is talking about your defeat of the Dark Lord Voldemort. The school has been overrun with reporters. It is probably best if you stay here over the week end,” Snape said.

The fact that school was still in session had been in the back of my mind, but at the same time, I couldn’t imagine going back. It was like a chapter in my life, where I’d been a child at school, had ended and a new chapter, where I was a husband, a father, and the defeater of Voldemort, had begun.

“The week end?” I asked, pondering the possibility. Could I go back to school in Scotland and leave my family here in France, hundreds of miles away?

“Yes. Today is Friday. The week end starts tomorrow. Come Monday, you will be expected back at school,” Snape drawled.

“I will be allowed back at school? I killed Voldemort and I almost killed Crabbe!” I exclaimed.

Draco recoiled, a look of shock and horror on his face. He mustn’t have been told about Crabbe.

“You were already not expelled for your actions against Vincent Crabbe. Vincent has been discharged from the hospital wing. And as for the Dark Lord, it was his own spell back-firing that took him out. You are a hero for that. There will never be a punishment associated with such action, unless you count simpering fans and intrusive newspaper articles as punishment. If you wish, you could speak to the Head of the Auror department and ask to receive special admittance into the Auror Corps on the grounds of defeating the Dark Lord Voldemort, without finishing your NEWTs. Otherwise, I suggest you return to school to finish your education,” Snape replied.

Draco pointed at me and then clapped his hands together, like McGonagall calling the class together.

“Well that settles it then: I expect to see you at school on Monday,” Snape said.

“What?” I asked, having missed what Draco meant and why Draco was in charge of me.

“Your husband is the head of his family and the current Lord Malfoy. Even though he is still underage, he was emancipated upon his father’s incarceration last year, making him a legal adult. You, Mr. Potter, are still underage and not emancipated. Your husband has ordered you to return to school. Until you are seventeen, he is your legal guardian. Your only legal guardian, now that Albus Dumbledore is dead. Legal action can be taken against you if you are truant from school without his permission,” Snape answered.

“Draco ordered me to return to school?” I asked, turning from Snape to Draco.

Draco nodded, then repeated the signs, first pointing at me and then clapping his hands in McGonagall fashion. Those two signs must’ve been my orders.

“Well if you want me to, I’ll go back, if you arrange for me to come home to you and our son on weekends,” I said. There wasn’t much time left until the end of the school year anyway. I wanted to stay here and get to know my husband and my son, but it wouldn’t be that long and it would be alright as long as I could spend weekends with them.

“You have week end detentions, for almost murdering a fellow student,” Snape put in.

Draco started moving his hands faster than I could follow.

When Draco put his hands down, Snape replied, “Alright, we will work another punishment out. He won’t be getting away with it, even if he did defeat the Dark Lord, I will see to it. I will see you at School on Monday, Mr. Potter.”

Then Snape left, letting the door slam on the way out. The sound of the door woke Scorpius up, so Draco went to his room to nurse.

I was about to follow Draco into the room, but Lucius stopped me at the bedroom door.

“Harry, would you mind joining me in my office to discuss your situation at school?” Lucius asked.

I nodded, wondering if I was about to be punished by my father-in-law. I felt a dread in the pit of my stomach, like when I was staying with Ron and we’d gotten in trouble with Mrs. Weasley.

Lucius led me to an office on the first floor. He sat down on the chair behind his desk and motioned for me to sit down on the chair on the other side of his desk.

“Now to be clear, I am not your legal guardian, Draco is, so what to do about this situation is not my decision. Ultimately, it is Draco’s decision. I only want to chat with you, to see if we can come up with some suggestions for Draco regarding what you feel would be an appropriate punishment for your actions,” Lucius began.

That wasn’t what I was expecting. I would’ve thought he’d chew me out long before he’d sound so reasonable. But I wasn’t about to suggest to him that he should start acting like an arse, so I nodded.

“Now, why don’t you start by telling me what happened?” Lucius asked.

So I did. I told Lucius about using the Half-Blood Prince’s potion book all year and the spell scribbled in the margin. Then I told him about the fight in the corridor with Crabbe, and how I’d almost killed on accident, because I didn’t know what the spell did.

“Well Harry, this is a serious matter, indeed. You rightfully should be expelled for your actions, but the irony is not lost on me that it was Severus’ own spell that he wants to expel you for using,” Lucius said.

“Snape’s spell?” I asked confused.

“Yes, Severus invented that spell when he was your age and wrote it down in his potion’s book. He’s a Half-Blood, you see, his father being Muggle. His mother was the last of the Prince’s, a formerly Pure-Blood family. He gave himself that silly nickname when he was at school,” Lucius explained.

“So I’ve been using Snape’s potion book this whole year!?!” I asked in shock.

Lucius nodded and replied, “I do think you should return the book to him. It is his property, although it should not be in that school.”

In my state of shock, I nodded, agreeing to give the book back.

“So what punishment were you assigned for your actions? Something on week ends?” Lucius asked.

“Detentions, every day, including weekends,” I answered.

“Well then, we can’t just have your detentions moved to another day, because you already have detention on every day. We also can’t ask for longer weekday detentions, because you need time to do your school work; there’s no reason for you to return to school if you are not going to be able to learn. I think the only solution is for you to serve your missed detentions during the summer, or come up with some other way to make amends for your actions during the summer,” he replied.

“Some other way?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, like community service or spending your time doing something that will help the boy you almost killed,” he answered.

“Community service?” I asked, the possibility running through my head. I didn’t want to spend my summer with the Crabbes and I didn’t think Vincent would want to see me either, but community service was something I could do.

“Like volunteering at a charitable organization. The Malfoy foundation provides monetary support for Pure-Blood families in need and donates a great deal of money to Hogwarts, to keep the school running. We could expand our charitable efforts into helping whoever you like, or there are a great many Muggle organizations. You could do anything from helping at a Muggle soup kitchen to working at a charity shop to mentoring orphans. It’s up to you to choose, but if you gave me some direction regarding what you are interested in, I could help find you information,” he explained.

“I’d like to do that. Charity is good,” I replied. I felt my heart warm at the idea of helping others. “But do you really think Snape will be okay with it? Switching out week end detentions for summer charity work?”

“Harry, Professor Snape himself was a beneficiary of the Malfoy Foundation,” he replied and I raised an eyebrow in surprise at this news. “He and his mother were being abused by his father. My mother saw to it that they got away from that monster. They were provided a safe place to live and money for Severus to buy school supplies. His mother had to work to cover the rest, but she was able to manage. Her husband probably would have killed her if she hadn’t gotten away from him. I think Severus is one person who won’t be able to object to you doing community service as a punishment. You’re just lucky it wasn’t one of the Weasley kids you harmed. I can’t imagine Arthur Weasley accepting that punishment…”

“Why’s that?” I asked, wondering if it was just the old Weasley/Malfoy feud.

Lucius winked at me. “I turned his family down for aid from our foundation. I just didn’t think that his circumstances weren’t entirely of his own doing. Both parents are able bodied and neither of them a monster. They chose to have all those kids on his salary. Now that all of the kids are off to Hogwarts, his wife should have gotten a job to pay for all those school supplies. Of course when I turned them down, they still had two at home, but they were old enough to behave while their mother worked part time. I know it was hard on them coming up with the money to put 4 children through school at the same time, but they chose to have two more children after they had the twins and Molly Weasley refused to even work part time doing easy secretary stuff for the Malfoy Foundation.”

I didn’t know if there was any truth to this statement, but it would explain where some of the animosity between the two families came from. Maybe it wasn’t all about what a horrible person Lucius was. I was certainly starting to see Lucius more favorably in the last twenty-four hours.

“So what do we have to do now? Can you write Snape about me working for the charity?” I asked, changing the subject. I didn’t want to continue to talk about the Weasleys, in case everything he was telling me was a crock of shit.

“No, I don’t have the authority to do so. Draco is your guardian, not me. We can present our idea to him, but it is his decision if it will do. If he authorizes it, then I can write a letter to Severus,” Lucius replied.

I was glad that Lucius wasn’t in charge of me, but at the same time it felt weird for my husband to be. But at least it wouldn’t be for long: I was only a few months away from being of age.

* * *

Later, Draco did agree with the plan his father and I came up with for me to do community service over the summer. Lucius, as he promised, wrote to Snape and made the arrangement. By the time I went back to school on Monday, it was set. I had detention with Snape Monday through Friday and Friday night, after detention, I returned to Draco and Scorpius in France. It was hard being away from my family during the week, but Draco wanted me to finish school so that I could fulfill my goal of being an Auror. And since he stopped school after his OWLs, it was probably for the best that I finish my NEWTs.

The other students were a bit crazed with The Chosen One Savor of the Wizarding World hero-worship, but McGonagall, our new Headmistress, gave a speech in the Great Hall about giving me some space and not following me around asking for autographs. And Snape started taking House Points from anyone caught harassing me and giving out detentions if they were caught asking for autographs. Plus, my fellow sixth year Gryffindors closed in around me, walking me from place to place, so that I was never caught alone to be mobbed. So the crazed fans were kept at bay and I was able to concentrate on school work again.

And so life went on, the world more peaceful now that Voldemort was truly gone. Draco and I formed a happy little family with Scorpius, and soon Lyra and Caelum too. After I finished my seventh year and my second summer of community service, I became an Auror with Ron as my Auror partner. Lucius and Narcissa stayed in France with Delphi, while Draco and I moved into Malfoy Manor with our children.

One day, in the distant future, our Scorpius agreed to be set up with Delphi by Lucius, but the relationship didn’t take. Scorpius moved on and fell in love with the Clearwater girl.

Delphi ended up married to Bill Weasley’s son. She grew up extremely loved and turned out nothing like either of her parents. She knew who her biological parents were and she knew that they did bad things, but she also knew that no one blamed her for their mistakes and that she was free to grow up to be a better person. The cycle was finally broken and Britain was never again threatened by the uprising of a dark lord.

**Author's Note:**

> Please Review!


End file.
